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scans_dailyIn this entry I wanted to discuss the author whose work shaped the fandom experiences of my youth. While she was not involved in comics, I was given permission to write this post, as Kossakowska was an extremely important figure in Polish sci-fi/fantasy subculture, and it was her works around which ‘fangirl’ style of fandom first formed in Poland in any large numbers. Please keep in mind that I will be discussing death a lot, a major trigger warning here.
Maja Lidia Kossakowska was an artist working in many fields. She was a playwright, a poet, a painter, an archeologist, and in the 00s the most popular writer among teenage girls in Poland. She tended to write somewhat juvenile fantasy stories inspired by Christian mythology, with a little bit of romance, a lot of adventure and some horror added in to spice things up. She was most famous for her Angelology series, at the time of her death made of six novels and two collections of short stories, as well as two-volume Order of the World’s End, which in my opinion completely wasted the premise of every world ending event happening at once, but that’s just my opinion. The author was most inspired by Julio Cortazar, which is especially visible in her playful narration style with tendency towards neologisms, and in how she portrays her male characters, both in terms of characterization and esthethics. Kossakowska and her fans loved gruff, Latin American style macho men – even when they were not humans at all!
That said, I was never a fan of the author and for most of my youth actively tried to avoid discussions of the Angelology series in nerdy spaces, which was kinda difficult, as it is the series that formed the first nerdy spaces for girls in Polish subculture. While I’ll argue that girls were part of manga and anime subculture for years at this point, Japanese works were never as mainstream in Poland as sci-fi/fantasy was. Her works inspired a generation of younger writers both in terms of themes (where in English YA you will find a lot of witches and vampires, in Polish YA you will find many angels and demons) and playful language used by the narrator. Furthermore, the half-naked macho men of the novels’ covers inspired many young artists in their style, not only women. When I look at gay art published in Replika (Poland’s only regularly published queer magazine), sometimes I think „you were a fan of Angelology in your youth, weren’t you?” when I see male characters drawn in particular way.
Now, why I am writing in past tense… On May 23rd Kossakowska died in a fire in her cabin in the woods, her favourite place that gave her so much inspiration in life. It’s so incredibly tragic. Not only did she die one of the most horrible deaths possible, but also the place she loved the most perished with her. She is survived by her husband, fellow writer Jarosław Grzędowicz.
As far as I am aware, Kossakowska was never translated into English. If they are avialable in your language, the works I personally liked are:
• Więzy Krwi (Blood Ties), a short story collection, very mixed both thematically and stylistically, but overall a refreshing read.
• Upiór Południa (Noon Mare, a word play on ‘midnight mare’, a vampiric creature from Polish folk lore), a series of four interconnected novellas dealing with the themes of war, death and grieving. It’s the most psychological work of Kossakowska and honestly her best, but keep in mind that it will be very problematic in an unfun way.
• Ruda Sfora (Red Horde), a fantasy adventure novel in which the destruction of Yakut culture by Soviet imperialists takes a metaphorical form of a world-ending calamity inspired by Siberian folk lore.
The news of her death made me feel… very tired, to be honest. Among all the tragedies happening at once, I am not done with one mourning when there’s another to be had. I feel empty, and cannot really process all the things going on. I hope that Kossakowska, who was into Eastern mysthicism, gets reincarnated in a nice, safe place and lives a very long life this time.
Maja Lidia Kossakowska was an artist working in many fields. She was a playwright, a poet, a painter, an archeologist, and in the 00s the most popular writer among teenage girls in Poland. She tended to write somewhat juvenile fantasy stories inspired by Christian mythology, with a little bit of romance, a lot of adventure and some horror added in to spice things up. She was most famous for her Angelology series, at the time of her death made of six novels and two collections of short stories, as well as two-volume Order of the World’s End, which in my opinion completely wasted the premise of every world ending event happening at once, but that’s just my opinion. The author was most inspired by Julio Cortazar, which is especially visible in her playful narration style with tendency towards neologisms, and in how she portrays her male characters, both in terms of characterization and esthethics. Kossakowska and her fans loved gruff, Latin American style macho men – even when they were not humans at all!
That said, I was never a fan of the author and for most of my youth actively tried to avoid discussions of the Angelology series in nerdy spaces, which was kinda difficult, as it is the series that formed the first nerdy spaces for girls in Polish subculture. While I’ll argue that girls were part of manga and anime subculture for years at this point, Japanese works were never as mainstream in Poland as sci-fi/fantasy was. Her works inspired a generation of younger writers both in terms of themes (where in English YA you will find a lot of witches and vampires, in Polish YA you will find many angels and demons) and playful language used by the narrator. Furthermore, the half-naked macho men of the novels’ covers inspired many young artists in their style, not only women. When I look at gay art published in Replika (Poland’s only regularly published queer magazine), sometimes I think „you were a fan of Angelology in your youth, weren’t you?” when I see male characters drawn in particular way.
Now, why I am writing in past tense… On May 23rd Kossakowska died in a fire in her cabin in the woods, her favourite place that gave her so much inspiration in life. It’s so incredibly tragic. Not only did she die one of the most horrible deaths possible, but also the place she loved the most perished with her. She is survived by her husband, fellow writer Jarosław Grzędowicz.
As far as I am aware, Kossakowska was never translated into English. If they are avialable in your language, the works I personally liked are:
• Więzy Krwi (Blood Ties), a short story collection, very mixed both thematically and stylistically, but overall a refreshing read.
• Upiór Południa (Noon Mare, a word play on ‘midnight mare’, a vampiric creature from Polish folk lore), a series of four interconnected novellas dealing with the themes of war, death and grieving. It’s the most psychological work of Kossakowska and honestly her best, but keep in mind that it will be very problematic in an unfun way.
• Ruda Sfora (Red Horde), a fantasy adventure novel in which the destruction of Yakut culture by Soviet imperialists takes a metaphorical form of a world-ending calamity inspired by Siberian folk lore.
The news of her death made me feel… very tired, to be honest. Among all the tragedies happening at once, I am not done with one mourning when there’s another to be had. I feel empty, and cannot really process all the things going on. I hope that Kossakowska, who was into Eastern mysthicism, gets reincarnated in a nice, safe place and lives a very long life this time.
