“Knowledge that is grown only on the outside changes nothing inside a man, or merely changes him on the surface, as one garment is changed for another. But he who learns by taking things insi...”
Work
Tokarczuk's third novel, Primeval and Other Times was awarded the Passport Prize in 1996 And The Koscielski Prize in 1997, which established the author as one of the leading voices in Polish letters. it is set in the mythical village of Primeval in the very heart of Poland, which is populated by eccentric, archetypal characters. The village, a microcosm of Europe, Is guarded by four archangels, from whose perspective the novel chronicles the lives of Primeval's inhabitants over the course of the feral 20th century. In prose that is forceful and direct, The narrative follows Poland's tortured political history from 1914 To The contemporary era And The episodic brutality that is visited on ordinary village life. Yet Primeval and Other Times is a novel of universal dimension that does not dwell on the parochial. A stylized fable as well as epic allegory about the inexorable grind of time, The clash between modernity (the masculine) and nature (the feminine), it has been translated into most European languages. Tokarczuk has said of the novel: "I always wanted to write a book such as this. One that creates and describes a world. it is the story of a world that, like all things living, Is born, develops, and then dies." Kitchens, bedrooms, childhood memories, dreams and insomnia, reminiscences, and amnesia - these are part of the existential and acoustic spaces from which the voices of Tokarczuk's tale come, her "boxes in boxes."
Quotes
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Olga Tokarczuk
Canonical work source
“Knowledge that is grown only on the outside changes nothing inside a man, or merely changes him on the surface, as one garment is changed for another. But he who learns by taking things insi...”
“Then for a brief moment he saw everything completely differently. Open space, empty and endless, stretched away in all “directions. Everything within this dead expanse, every living thing wa...”
“God, God . . . He’s just a good accountant with an eye on the debit as well as the credit column. There has to be a balance. One life is wasted, another is born . . .”
“It is strange that God, who is beyond the limits of time, manifests Himself within time and its transformations. If you don’t know “where” God is – and people sometimes ask such questions –...”
“Come back to me. The world is terrible and it can kill you. Look at the earthquakes, the volcanic eruptions, the fires and the floods,” He thundered from the rain clouds. “Oh, come on, I’ll...”
“It’s not about whether God exists or not. It’s not like that. To believe, or not to believe, that is the question.”