Books of Jacob: an introduction

2022-01-19

Why I'm obsessed

a book about language's relationship to reality, as utilized by a religious heretic in Poland, is 100% completely up my alley. One because language, although I'm much more superficial about it, interested in different languages' connections to each other and changes over time. There are plenty of languages at play in this book, especially the one near and dear to my heart, Polish. I love a moment where Jacob Frank is struggling to understand Polish morphological changes. You and me both, Jacob.

And hereticism, in Poland. Something about my memory of Poland makes me behave with more anarchy because I find myself craving more rebellion, more heretics every time I hear news from Poland. Strajk Kobiet (plural genitive case) warms the cockles of my heart.

interview with Olga Tokarczuk translated from Gazeta Wyborcza