THE JUNGLE BOOK

Author: Rudyard Kipling
Year: 1961 (1894)
Publisher: Instytut Wyd. "Nasza Ksiegarnia"
Language: Polish (translator Józef Birkenmajer)

In the heart of savage wilderness, amidst the ever-shifting fabric of primal existence, dwells the chronicle of a being in search of his own essence. Within this narrative tapestry, the central figure, Mowgli, emerges as a voyager on the tempestuous sea of identity formation. An orphaned child, cast adrift upon the verdant tides of the jungle, Mowgli becomes an interface, a point of juncture, between the uncouth wilderness of beasts and the supposedly cultured dominion of man. His identity hangs suspended like a pendulum swaying between two irreconcilable worlds. “Ksiega Dzungli” (“The Jungle Book”) by Rudyard Kipling thus explores the microcosm of humanity's scattered attitude toward nature and its ceaseless quest for a home.

The jungle itself can be construed as an embodiment of the dialectic that man has struggled with since the beginning of abstract thought. Here, the Hegelian thesis of nature clashes with the antithesis of civilisation. Nature and culture are pitted against each other as mutually exclusive opposites. Mowgli, the feral child, incarnates this contradiction. He is caught in the in-between, as it were, balancing on the cusp of human society and untamed biology. His very existence mirrors the Hegelian struggle for self-realization, oscillating between individuality and universality.

Mowgli’s interactions with the jungle's inhabitants, be it the motherly panther Bagheera or the sage bear Baloo, evoke the timeless conundrum of self-discovery. In these relationships, the reader is witness to a vaudeville of influence, power, and vulnerability within a matrix of order, tradition, and honour. The matrix is put on trial by the disruptive force that is the vindictive and ruthless tiger Shere Khan. This is the disturbance that is required to ignite the dialectic. The boy in need of protection faces his fiend and by defeating him becomes a man; the synthesis. The self-realisation through conflict. The rise of a man among wolves.

Although the tale of Mowgli has established itself as the most famous of the stories in “Ksiega Dzungli”, significantly influenced, no doubt, by the Walt Disney-rendition, it is actually but one of several stories in the volume. Another noted entry is that of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Here, the titular mongoose stands as a metaphorical benchmark, emblematic of the primal tenacity inherent within the natural world. While Mowgli grapples with humanity as an intrinsic quality in himself, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi faces off with the perils of nature as a self-proclaimed guardian of a human family. Eager to be of service to his adopted tribe, he puts himself in harm’s way, not once but repeatedly, by challenging the fierce serpents Nag and Nagaina and protecting the humans from the legless lepidosaurs’ deadly bite. While Mowgli is torn between his biological and his circumstantial natures, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi does his best to make a place for himself in a foreign world. His struggle is with his milieu, not his own being. 

Much as I acknowledge that the book was written with young readers I mind, as always, I refuse to allow this to stand as an excuse for poor writing. On the contrary, given the restraints of the immature audience’s limited knowledge and intellectual abilities, the task of a writer for children is perhaps even more challenging than to one who is free to employ the full palette of linguistic nuance. Kipling was not a novice writer when he put together “Ksiega dzungli”. More than a decade earlier he had already established himself as a journalist and poet, and one would think that he would have a good command of the written word and the ability to identify and adapt to his recipients. As my copy is a translation, I will not comment on Kipling’s use of language but the dramaturgy and character development are in my view unsatisfactory. Both are sketchy and disjointed and they lack the immersive cadence that I have learned to expect from truly accomplished writers.

Despite all, the primary benefit of having read Kipling’s famous stories is to counterbalance Walt Disney’s distorted version of the jungle and to learn what Kipling had intended when he wrote his stories. There is a depth and a message in them that, if not done away with completely, are glossed over and trivialised in the animated film. This message, albeit clad in an outdated literary cloak, is still relevant to humanity today as our destructive effect on the climate serves as a shocking reminder of our inescapable dependence on our ecosystem.      

BUMNECDOTES, LIMERICKS, AND EPITAPHS ARE SPONSORED BY THE RUSSIAN MOB

Author: Krzysztof Daukszewicz
Year: 2008 (2004)
Publisher: Ksiegarnia Bellonia
Language: Polish

Every nation has the government it deserves, if we are to believe the Sardinian philosopher and diplomat Joseph de Maistre. Equally true perhaps, and tightly linked to Maistre’s reflection, is that every nation has the comedians it needs. For Poland, such a comedian, satirist, singer, and poet is Krzysztof Daukszewicz.

He made a name for himself already during the Polish communist era, for example as a member of the legendary satiric theatre group Kabaret Pod Egida, and has continued to be a successful commentator on current affairs in various artforms on television, on stage, and in written form as a columnist and writer.

Against this backdrop, I was understandably excited about his little collection of observations and anecdotes titled “Meneliki, limeryki, epitafia, sponsoruje ruska mafia” (not available in English but a lacklustre attempt at a translation could sound like “Bumnecdotes, Limericks, and Epitaphs Are Aponsored By the Russian Mob”). The Polish word “menel” translates to bum or hobo in English, implying both homelessness and an intimate relationship to alcohol, and denotes a most commonplace phenomenon in the Polish cultural landscape. I expected a collection of both highs and lows, a goody bag of thought-provoking musings and downright daft cock-and-bull-stories from the writer’s encounters with bums around Poland intermingled with each other, and in the end something profound to tie it all together into a coherent critique of a society that aspires to be a Christian superpower but remains incapable of sparing five measly loaves of bread and two fish to feed its weakest members. All of the above would have been compatible with Daukszewicz’s work in the past.  

Regrettably, despite the inspired title, I found that my expectations were not met. True, some of the anecdotes are witty and the outsiders that Daukszewicz has met in all corners of Poland over the years are sometimes both original and eloquent, but on a whole the ambition of the book does not seem to aim beyond the occasional laugh at the expense of people who are already struggling at the bottom of society and who serve mostly as facetious conversation starters and empty validations of our own normality, much like the village idiots of yore. The limericks, of which there are significantly fewer than the bumnecdotes, rarely follow the form of traditional limericks and equally rarely end in a funny or piquant punchline. The epitaphs are sometimes unintelligible, sometimes flat, and sometimes just in poor taste.

The highlight is the ultimate section where Daukszewicz takes on the Polish governments (both the present at the time the book was published and earlier ones). In this section, some of his keen eye for the absurd and well documented knack for undressing power come to the fore. The final entry, “Abridged minutes of the investigative committee” is actually brilliant in both form and execution.

All in all, “Meneliki, limeryki, epitafia, sponsoruje ruska mafia” is a quick and light read which unfortunately misses the mark. It does not reflect the inimitable sense of humour and sharp satirical pen of Krzysztof Daukszewicz’s who has produced significantly more powerful work both before and after this collection.

DOCTOR GLAS

Author: Hjalmar Söderberg
Year: 2010 (1905)
Publisher: Albert Bonniers Förlag
Language: Swedish

“Doktor Glas” (“Doctor Glas”) by Hjalmar Söderberg is one of the most influential modernist novels in Swedish literature and stands as a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of morality, inner conflict, and the intricacies of the human mind. Set against the backdrop of early 20^th century Stockholm, Söderberg masterfully delves into the mind of his protagonist, Doctor Tyko Glas, unravelling a gripping narrative that traverses the boundaries of ethical dilemmas and personal desires.

One of the most notable achievements of "Doktor Glas" is Söderberg's nuanced portrayal of the main character’s moral quandaries, which take centre stage throughout the novel. At its heart, “Doktor Glas” constitutes a response to e.g. Dostoyevsky’s monumental work Crime and Punishment, in which similar themes are explored from a Russian perspective half a century earlier, as well as to much of Friedrich Nietzsche’s writing on good and evil. The doctor's moral compass is challenged when he becomes entangled in the life of a young woman, Helga Gregorius, who seeks his assistance in escaping her oppressive marriage to the odious Pastor Gregorius. This catalyst for moral conflict sets in motion a series of events that propel the narrative forward while simultaneously plunging Glas into a profound examination of his own values and beliefs.

SPOILER ALERT

Whereas Dostoyevsky’s Rodion Raskolnikov commits his act early on in the story and spends the rest of the novel grappling with the consequences of his decision, Tyko Glas spends a considerable amount of time contemplating and legitimising his actions before he executes on them. Although he rationalises his actions as warranted and altruistic, two interesting observations about the underlying reason for his actions stand out to the reader:

1. It is clear from the beginning, long before Helga Gregorius visits his cabinet, that Glas despises and even hates Pastor Gregorius, Helga’s husband;

2. Helga does not outright ask Glas to neutralise her husband. All she asks is that he intervenes to give her some degree of independence from her nuptial duties.

Although, Glas tries to explain his actions as inevitable in order to rescue Helga from the pastor, and the first-person perspective allows the reader to follow the string of thoughts that Glas employs to talk himself into this conclusion, as an outsider, the reader would be forgiven for not totally accepting Glas’ narrative at face value. While Raskolnikov dug himself ever deeper into guilt, Glas swims on top of his faux justification of his deed. In Nietzschean terms one might say that Master morality is Raskolnikov’s starting point and Glas’ destination. As Nietzsche explicitly named Christian morality as slave morality, it is no coincidence that Doctor Glas’ antagonist is a pastor. What better way to challenge the slave morality imposed on us by the Church than to murder a man of the cloth? This aligns perfectly with Nietzsche's view of transcending societal constraints and moral dogmas in the pursuit of individual flourishing.  

Söderberg's prose, marked by its elegant and evocative style, serves as a vessel for the novel's exploration of complex themes. The author expertly balances moments of introspection and philosophical contemplation with vivid descriptions of the city and its inhabitants. Through rich and vivid language, Söderberg creates an atmospheric backdrop that complements the narrative's exploration of human desires, societal constraints, and the yearning for personal liberation. The author’s choice to tell the story in epistolary form through the processed first-person thoughts of the protagonist helps to make the events really come to life and become relevant to the reader.  All characters, including the doctor, are sketchy and we only get to know what we absolutely need to know in order to follow the story, but for a book this size, that is not a negative thing. The purpose that this short book was supposed to serve and the questions it was supposed to raise, come across with considerable vitality, which by any account is what Söderberg must have intended. “Doktor Glas” is a remarkable book despite its modest dimensions and I warmly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the discourse of morality, social restraints, women’s rights, and the human psyche.