Bruno JasieÅ„ski,Cristian Opris,Soren Gauger,Marcin Piekoszewski
"This is a superb text of astonishing modernity, a veritable manifesto of the wretched of the earth ...",â€” ,Marianne,Bruno Jasienskiâ€™s ,I Burn Paris, has remained one of Polandâ€™s most uncomfortable masterstrokes of literature since its initial and controversial serialization in 1928 in the French magazine ,Lâ€™HumanitÃ©, (for which Jasienski was deported). It tells the story of a disgruntled factory worker who, finding himself on the streets, takes the opportunity to poison Paris's water supply with a deadly virus. With the deaths piling up, we encounter Chinese communists, rabbis, disillusioned scientists, American millionaires and a host of others as the city sections off into ethnic enclaves and everyone plots their route of escape. At the heart of the cosmopolitan city is a deep-rooted xenophobia and hatred â€” the one thread that binds all these groups together. As Paris lies in ruin, Jasienski issues a rallying cry to the downtrodden of the world while mixing "The Internationale" with a broadcast of popular music.,With its montage strategies reminiscent of early avant-garde cinema and fist-to-the-gut metaphors, ,I Burn Paris, has lost none of its vitality and vigor. Ruthlessly dissecting various utopian fantasies, Jasienski is out to disorient, and he has a seemingly limitless ability to transform the Parisian landscape into the product of disease-addled minds. An exquisite example of literary Futurism and Catastrophism, the novel presents a filthy, degenerated world where factories and machines have replaced the human, but rather than clichÃ© and simplistic propaganda, these features are given an immediacy that depicts the modern metropolis as only superficially cosmopolitan, as hostile and animalistic to its core.
Fiction,Cultural,Poland,Literature,Classics,European Literature,Polish Literature,Literary Fiction,Fantasy,Science Fiction,Dystopia,Cultural,France,Speculative Fiction
I Burn Paris