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Jerzy Kosinski - Polish author and liar


Varsovian 91 | 634
12 Mar 2012 #1
British people know him chiefly through the novel he wrote which was turned into the film "Being There". Poles might know him as the holocaust industry novelist who wrote vicious lies about the brave people who risked their lives to save little Józef Lewinkopf during the war. He passed it off as mostly autobiographical for years. And it was a masterpiece of plagiarism too.
pip 10 | 1,659
12 Mar 2012 #2
there is no proof. accusations have been flying for years and nobody will ever be able to prove otherwise.
what is your point.
OP Varsovian 91 | 634
12 Mar 2012 #3
The holocaust industry has evil aspects to it. Jerzy Kosinski was a very successful part of it, lying very profitably to an audience that paid handsomely.
pip 10 | 1,659
12 Mar 2012 #4
everything has evil aspects to it as long as there is money to be made. doesn't matter what ethnicity you are.
Richfilth 6 | 415
12 Mar 2012 #5
Are you referring to The Painted Bird? And are you suggesting that no Pole during the six years of the war committed a single crime; no robberies, rape or informing for personal gain?

I have no doubt that the novel as a story is a fiction, but don't be so naive as to think nothing similar occurred during that period.
rybnik 18 | 1,454
12 Mar 2012 #6
And are you suggesting that no Pole during the six years of the war committed a single crime; no robberies, rape or informing for personal gain?

Of course those things went on. But some of the scenes he depicts are so outlandish and so beyond the pale, that one has to deduce that his aim, in those instances, was to sensationalize. He did it to the detriment of the Polish character as a whole. And for that the media did not take him to task (they glorified him).
polishmama 3 | 279
12 Mar 2012 #7
I've heard of Kosinski before. Not in a good way.
boletus 30 | 1,361
12 Mar 2012 #8
Janusz Głowacki, januszglowacki.com, who knew Kosiński in New York, wrote several pages about him in the autobiographical novel "Z głowy" (Of the head, a play word on his surname.) Here are few excerpts from the book, which I translated for you from its Polish edition.

When New York magazine "Village Voice" has prepared a great article that destroyed Kosinski, accusing him of series of lies, mainly about the fact that he had not written his books, and that this little exercise had been carried for him by hired editors and translators, Kosinski played back again according to the system, which he knew better than anyone else, and which has worked so flawlessly until then. He asked the journalists, who were conducting an act of - what is now called in Poland - investigative journalism, whether he could meet with them in company of a psychologist who studied the behaviour of Holocaust victims in stressful situations.

================
You may want to compare it to the official wikipedia article, which much tougher on Kosiński than Głowacki.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Kosinski
polishmama 3 | 279
13 Mar 2012 #9
It would be interesting to read The Painted Bird and Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy (The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma) and compare them side by side to see if the allegations of plagiarism are true.
sofijufka 2 | 187
13 Mar 2012 #10
better compare "Wystarczy być" {Being There?} and "Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy... "The Painted Bird" is another cup of tea
polishmama 3 | 279
13 Mar 2012 #11
I thought it was The Painted Bird he was accused of plagiarizing?
boletus 30 | 1,361
13 Mar 2012 #12
better compare "Wystarczy być" {Being There?} and "Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy... "The Painted Bird" is another cup of tea

Yes, and this is what Polish Wikipedia says (my translation):
According to the opinion expressed in the magazine Village Voice in 1982, the book "Being there" was a plagiarism of the Polish novel "Career of Nicodemus Dyzma" by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, unknown to the Western readers at that time. On the other hand, it should be noted that the psychological portraits of the main characters are quite different. Chauncey Gardiner is a simple, limited man who allowed himself to be passively carried by the circumstances. Dyzma, on the other hand, quickly develops the features of a cynical manipulator, actively creating the events and instrumentally treating people around him.

I have no personal opinion on the subject here, since I only read "Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy", long time ago.
polishmama 3 | 279
13 Mar 2012 #13
Oh, I see, you are right. It is Being There that he allegedly plagiarized. My mistake. I still think it would be interesting to compare the two.

Boletus, that's an interesting article about it. Just because someone changes parts of a book or one character, however, does not mean it is no longer plagiarism.
boletus 30 | 1,361
13 Mar 2012 #14
Boletus, that's an interesting article about it.

Good book "Z głowy", I enjoyed it immensely and I recommend it. But I do not know if there is its English version published yet. It is a series of autobiographical stories, most of them funny - from PRL, USA and Republic of Poland. Głowacki is a play writer, and some of his plays were well received in USA. He is kind of minor celebrity there, but since he has nothing to do with pop culture, his popularity is/was quite limited.

Oh, I missed this:
Apparently two years ago he wrote a black humour book "Good night, Dżerzi" about Jerzy Kosiński. As he promised in the book "Z głowy" (in a fragment I translated above) Głowacki does not judge Dżerzi. The Rzeczpospolita article, presents an extensive review of that book.

Decades ago in Warsaw Janusz Glowacki Common Theatre saw a production of " War and Peace " . He remembered the words of Napoleon , who by leaving a free life Pierre Bezuchowowi , said: " For you it a lot , for me that's the case ." This question runs through the latest book Glowacki , the most outstanding of his achievements .

There are all the things we value him : ironic distance , penetrating , well- camouflaged sensitivity . " Good night , Dżerzi " is also a self-reflexive prose . Glowacki is a playwright przymierzający to write the script for Kosinski . He knows that this is his last chance to make a career . Wziętemu literary agent explains with disarming candor : " It was my very close friend , because the few times I met him in my life ."

sofijufka 2 | 187
14 Mar 2012 #15
there is a very interesting book by Joanna Siedlecka - "Czarny ptasior" {The Black Bird}, published in 1994 - about Jerzy Kosiński's youth
Jeremy Purdue
5 May 2021 #16
Just another Jewish grifter trying to make money off the holohoax.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
5 May 2021 #17
Saddening beyond measure when the ill-meaning few seek personal profit off of unspeakable human tragedy. Such then diminishes those true scum and certainly not the immeasurable dimensions of the HoloCAUST itself.
Strzelec35 34 | 904
5 May 2021 #18
I cant believe this forum has holocaust deniers now. They cry about ukrainians killing them but deny the holocaust go figure...
Novichok 4 | 7,363
5 May 2021 #19
I cant believe this forum has holocaust deniers now.

Who is a denier here?

They

Who is "they"?
Strzelec35 34 | 904
5 May 2021 #20
in wll seriousness anyone serious should know or admit the catholic church has a much bigger world conspiracy and done more damage than Zionists.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
5 May 2021 #21
Pay off the right people and see what happens? The power of the lapówka!
Novichok 4 | 7,363
5 May 2021 #22
the catholic church has a much bigger world conspiracy

Who are the conspirators and what are the objectives?
How much damage did the Zionists cause?
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
5 May 2021 #23
The Zionists, exception Meier Kahane, were not in theory troublemakers. In practice, that's another matter.
Novichok 4 | 7,363
5 May 2021 #24
were not in theory troublemakers.

In theory, Stalin was a nice guy.
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
5 May 2021 #25
Says who?
Novichok 4 | 7,363
5 May 2021 #26
The same guy who said that "the Zionists, exception Meier Kahane, were not in theory troublemakers."
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
5 May 2021 #27
Jabotinsky and his followers were surely no saints, yet weren't Crusaders either, baptizing the infidels on pain of sword. The Palestinian(non-Jewish) Arabs, the original "Israelis", happened to inhabit the very lands on which the European Jews had settled. Yet zero forced conversion was attempted!
Strzelec35 34 | 904
6 May 2021 #28
Just look at the catholic church's forced conversions like in the british isles against the protestants or the english church.
Novichok 4 | 7,363
6 May 2021 #29
What is "forced conversion"? Did they do lobotomies or use torture? When did it take place? In 2020? How would the Church know that the conversion operation was successful? How many did the Church convert?

Why is it necessary to pull teeth out of you every time you post something so stupid?
Lyzko 45 | 9,346
6 May 2021 #30
Just about. Even ardent Zionists were tame by comparison. They never insisted others convert to Judaism-:)


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