Culture

A Conversation With Olga Tokarczuk: On Her New Book, the Right to Forget, and an Epidemic of Stupidity

Olga Tokarczuk // Photo: Łukasz Giza

Poland has never been homogeneous. The author of There's Too Much World talks about how to describe a world in chaos, how the Nobel Prize changed her life, and why Prus is displacing Sienkiewicz.

By Michał Okoński, Tomasz Stawiszyński, and Olga Tokarczuk

Michał Okoński, Tomasz Stawiszyński: If you had to be a tree, what kind would you be?

Olga Tokarczuk: I've just come back from the Lubusz Land, where I saw beautiful, huge red oaks growing along the lowlands of the Odra River and its old riverbeds.

It was there that I realized these were the trees of my childhood, and only later did I learn that other species of oak exist too. But those remain, for me, the archetypal oaks: trees that turn red in autumn, so that it looks as though the banks of the Odra are glowing like embers.

Blank Spots in Earth's History: When the Planet Nearly Froze

A vast hole yawns in our planet's geological record, spanning as much as a billion years. Perhaps this is because the entire Earth was once locked in ice — ice that put life to an extreme test and ground down thick layers of rock. By Łukasz Kwiatek The American

Hermann Hesse, Literary Guru of Meditation: The Phenomenon of Siddhartha

In the years after the Second World War, contemplation became a lifeline for many who had been traumatized by their wartime experiences and were searching for meaning in life. By Maciej Bielawski Let's now look at this story from a different perspective — from the perspective of those who

The Age of the Offended: How Self-Absorption Hurts Us

Prof. Dariusz Doliński, social psychologist: We expect other people to treat our perspective as central, the way our therapist does. We want to be understood and heard, not to understand and hear others. By Ewa Pągowska and Dariusz Doliński Ewa Pągowska: A Polish travel company recently described on LinkedIn how

A Ball at the Elevation: What to Do With a Child at Mass

I took the ball away from my daughter — she answered with a shriek. I gave it back — it flew off across the nave. A moment later, the two of us fled the church. By Zuzanna Radzik Mass fell between nap time and lunch. A playground would have suited that slot

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Blank Spots in Earth's History: When the Planet Nearly Froze

Hermann Hesse, Literary Guru of Meditation: The Phenomenon of Siddhartha

The Age of the Offended: How Self-Absorption Hurts Us

A Ball at the Elevation: What to Do With a Child at Mass