POLAND

   Polish sf effectively began with the publication in 1785 of the novel Wojciech Zdarzynski, zycie i przypadki swoje opisujacy ("Wojciech Zdarzynski, Describing his Life and Adventures") (1785) by the Reverend Michal Dymitr Krajewski. This describes the civilizations of the Moon.Between then and WWII, Polish sf had, in terms of literary quality, at least 4 major landmarks. (1) In 1804 Jan Potocki (1761-1815) published (in French) Manuscrit trouve a Saragosse (2 vols 1804 and 1805 Russia and1 vol 1813 France; exp 1847 as Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie Poland; cut trans as The Saragossa Manuscript, ed Roger Caillois 1960 US). This extraordinary work - more fantasy than sf - is a well written and witty novel, a prolonged and vivid joke made by a worldly gentleman, a Count, at the expense of all the superstitions of his age. The complex plot could be seen as a series of ALTERNATE WORLDS nestling within one another like Chinese boxes. It was filmed in Poland under the Polish title in 1965, dirWojciech Has, and distributed quite widely in the West as The Saragossa Manuscript. (2) Historia przyszlos ci ("History of the Future") (composed 1829-42; part published in French 1835; 1964) by Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), unfortunately unfinished and partly lost, was done as a large fresco of the world seen more from the cultural than from the technological point of view. (3) The Moon trilogy by Jerzy ZUpsAWSKI consists of Na Srebrnym Globie ("On Silver Globe") (1901), Zwyciezca ("The Victor") (1908) and Stara Ziemia ("Old Earth") (1910). This is an essay onthe birth of civilization and myth, and on myth's clash with reality, beautifully written in the fin de siecle mood. (4) The road to modern Polish sf was paved by the avant-garde painter and writer Stanislaw IgnacyWITKIEWICZ in his apocalyptic novels Pozegnanie jesieni ("Farewell to Autumn") (1927) and Nienasycenie (1930; trans Louis Iribarne as Insatiability 1977 US). Having seen the 1917 Revolution from inside Russia, Witkiewicz was obsessed by the vision of "hordes of Asians" invading Europe and destroying whatever cultural values might exist in the future. He lived up to his philosophy and committed suicide when the Red Army invaded Poland in Sep 1939.Polish postwar sf has had its literaryachievements, too - not only the celebrated works of Stanislaw LEM but also the classical sf of Konrad Fialkowski, Adam Wisniewski-Snerg's cult novel Robot (1973) and, in the 1980s, such novels by the wonderfully inventive Wiktor Zwikiewicz as Delirium w Tharsys ("Delirium in Tharsys") (1986). Poland also has its GENRE-SF writers, such as Bohdan Petecki withStrefy zerowe ("Zero Zones") (1972).The current running through Polish sf has really been political. Because sf provides a perfect means of diverting attention away from drab reality into a beautiful future, it was encouraged in the decade after WWII by Poland's communist rulers. The best examples of such political sf are Krzysztof Borun's and Andrzej Trepka's Zagubiona przyszlosc ("The Lost Future") (1953), \#1 in a SPACE-OPERAtrilogy, and Stanislaw Lem's early novels Astronauci ("The Astronauts") (1951) and Oblok Magellana ("The Magellan Nebula") (1955). Rather later,from the mid-1970s onwards, sf writers began to take the opposite tack. Escaping strict censorship by using sf imagery, and with the help of alinguistic ingenuity reminiscent of George ORWELL, they began to describe the real world - even if at the price of incurring serious publication problems. (Orwell was probably a direct influence on such work, as several of his books had been published in Poland by underground publishers.) The best examples of such works are Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski's Wir pamieci("Whirlpool of Memory") (1979), Maciej Parowski's Twarza ku Ziemi ("Face to Earth") (1981), Janusz A. Zajdel's Limes inferior (1982) and Marek Oramus's Senni zwyciezcy ("Sleepy Victors") (1982).Sf writers of theyounger generation are now turning to fantasy, which is more marketable, and, because censorship no longer exists, political sf is in retreat and looks a bit old-fashioned: the gaping hole this leaves in the Polish sf tapestry is currently being filled by the importation (on a massive scale) of US-UK sf by such new private publishers as Amber and Arax.Film has never been a strong point of Polish sf. Aside from The Saragossa Manuscript, 2 further sf films deserve attention. Fitting well into thepolitical-criticism-through-sf-metaphor stream, Wojna Swiatow - Nastepne Stulecie (1982; vt The War of the Worlds-Next Century) dir Piotr Szulkintells of government manipulation of the media to disguise the facts of a Martian invasion. Something of an exception to this sort of politicalcinema is SEKSMISJA (1984; vt Sex Mission), a comedy dir Juliusz Machulski.There are currently 2 monthly sf magazines in Poland. The older,Fantastyka, has run since 1982 and has a circulation of over 120,000. Its strong points are its fine critical essays and a good choice of Polish authors. Fenix is the first privately owned and edited magazine; it emerged from FANZINE origins in 1990 and now has a (growing) circulation of about 70,000. Its selection of US-UK sf is considered the better, and it also publishes young Polish writers. Polish FANDOM is massive and well organized, its main activities centring on fanzines and CONVENTIONS.

   KS