A review by msand3
The Graveyard by Marek Hłasko
4.0
3.5 stars. There are some political ideologies that are so complex, twisted, and wrapped up in layers of illusion that the facts ceases to exist. Even when we peel back the layers of lies in search for that inner reality, we are only left with an emptiness surrounded by the cast-off rinds. The Oxford Dictionary has chosen "post-truth" as the Word of the Year, signaling a new shift toward that type of ideological self-blindness throughout the Western world. Perhaps we should call this shift "post-fact," since "truth" still exists, but only relative to how one accepts or willfully rejects fact.
We see it in stark relief in the United States with the election of Donald Trump, whose words are so empty that fact and fiction become inconsequential to his followers -- as long as the words are spoken by Trump, then those words are Truth, because Trump only speaks Truth. All else is a Lie. And so the tautology of the totalitarian ideologue begins its long, twisted warping of reality, wrapping so tightly around the facts as to make the concept of "fact" disappear altogether. There is still truth, but it is only the Truth of Trump. It is facts that have become meaningless. (Social workers in the last couple decades have termed this manipulative warping of perception "gaslighting.")
Rebellious Polish writer Marek Hlasko would understand this phenomenon explicitly. His novel The Graveyard, written in 1959 and recently published after long being suppressed, is a sharp critique of the Communist ideology in Poland that rigidly defined the reality of its acolytes to the point where the illusions masking their reality ran so deep that it became the only truth they knew. The protagonist, a working man and loyal party member named Franciszek Kowalski, is dragged into custody one night for speaking a vulgarity to a policeman -- a minor offense that sets in motion the unravelling of everything he understands to be the Truth about the party.
Kowalski soon comes to understand that tyranny and oppression have replaced political ideals and unity, and that service and social cohesion have transformed into surveillance, informing, and conformity. When this happens, he realizes, all men are living in the graveyard of ideology, but they don't realize it. Kowalski only recognizes this after it's too late.
Not surprisingly, the novel was refused publication by the Communist regime in Poland. In the 21st century, Hlasko's novel stands as a warning for anyone who might cast aside critical thinking and willingly (if unwittingly) accept the status quo. We must resist the gaslighting of reality and the obfuscation of fact that dangerous political rhetoric generates. Through the character of Kowalski, Hlasko suggests that the ones most capable of resistance are the outcasts, the misfits, and the marginalized. And even then, their only choice is to break away and go into exile -- a traumatic experience that will not be easy or without pain (physical, mental, and emotional).
There is no happy ending in the graveyard (or in The Graveyard). There is only the epiphany of self-knowledge and an understanding of the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses, which we might resist, but can never escape.
We see it in stark relief in the United States with the election of Donald Trump, whose words are so empty that fact and fiction become inconsequential to his followers -- as long as the words are spoken by Trump, then those words are Truth, because Trump only speaks Truth. All else is a Lie. And so the tautology of the totalitarian ideologue begins its long, twisted warping of reality, wrapping so tightly around the facts as to make the concept of "fact" disappear altogether. There is still truth, but it is only the Truth of Trump. It is facts that have become meaningless. (Social workers in the last couple decades have termed this manipulative warping of perception "gaslighting.")
Rebellious Polish writer Marek Hlasko would understand this phenomenon explicitly. His novel The Graveyard, written in 1959 and recently published after long being suppressed, is a sharp critique of the Communist ideology in Poland that rigidly defined the reality of its acolytes to the point where the illusions masking their reality ran so deep that it became the only truth they knew. The protagonist, a working man and loyal party member named Franciszek Kowalski, is dragged into custody one night for speaking a vulgarity to a policeman -- a minor offense that sets in motion the unravelling of everything he understands to be the Truth about the party.
Kowalski soon comes to understand that tyranny and oppression have replaced political ideals and unity, and that service and social cohesion have transformed into surveillance, informing, and conformity. When this happens, he realizes, all men are living in the graveyard of ideology, but they don't realize it. Kowalski only recognizes this after it's too late.
Not surprisingly, the novel was refused publication by the Communist regime in Poland. In the 21st century, Hlasko's novel stands as a warning for anyone who might cast aside critical thinking and willingly (if unwittingly) accept the status quo. We must resist the gaslighting of reality and the obfuscation of fact that dangerous political rhetoric generates. Through the character of Kowalski, Hlasko suggests that the ones most capable of resistance are the outcasts, the misfits, and the marginalized. And even then, their only choice is to break away and go into exile -- a traumatic experience that will not be easy or without pain (physical, mental, and emotional).
There is no happy ending in the graveyard (or in The Graveyard). There is only the epiphany of self-knowledge and an understanding of the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses, which we might resist, but can never escape.