I Burn Paris
4.03 (273 ratings by Goodreads)
By (author) Bruno Jasienski , Translated by Marcin Piekoszewski , Afterword by Soren Gauger , Illustrated by Cristian Opris
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I Burn Paris has remained one of Poland's most uncomfortable masterstrokes of literature since its initial and controversial serialization by Henri Barbusse in 1928 in lâ€(TM)HumanitÃ(c) (for which Jasie� "ski was deported for disseminating subversive literature). 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 the deaths piling up, we encounter Chinese communists, rabbis, disillusioned scientists, embittered Russian Ã(c)migrÃ(c)s, French communards and royalists, 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 is brought to ruin, Jasienski issues a rallying cry to the downtrodden of the world, mixing strains of "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 and economic relationships have turned just about everyone into a prostitute. Yet rather than clichÃ(c) and simplistic propaganda, there is an immediacy to the writing, and the modern metropolis is starkly depicted as only superficially cosmopolitan, as hostile and animalistic at its core. This English translation of I Burn Paris fills a major gap in the availability of works from the interwar Polish avant-garde, an artistic phenomenon receiving growing attention of late.
Format Paperback | 299 pages
Dimensions 135 x 195 x 22.86mm | 417.3g
Publication date 16 Oct 2017
Publisher Twisted Spoon Press
Publication City/Country Prague, Czech Republic
Edition New edition
Edition Statement New edition
Illustrations note 5 black and white illustrations
Bestsellers rank 422,608
Jasie� "ski's I Burn Paris reveals a still largely forgotten moment: post-avant-garde and pre-Socialist Realist. Aesthetically, the moment was a fantastical one: quasi-Surrealist, hallucinogenic, and grotesque. â€" Marci Shore, Times Literary Supplement
5 35% (96)
4 41% (113)
2 6% (17)
1 1% (3)
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