Transcript Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski Imperium

Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski
Imperium
Title: Imperium
Author: Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 352
Publisher: Granta Books, 890287200
ISBN: 1862071055
Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub
Size: 8.1 MB
Download: allowed
Description
Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski's last book, The Soccer War -a revelation of the contemporary experience
of war — prompted John le Carre to call the author "the conjurer extraordinary of modern
reportage." Now, in Imperium, Kapu?ci?ski gives us a work of equal emotional force and
evocative power: a personal, brilliantly detailed exploration of the almost unfathomably complex
Soviet empire in our time.
He begins with his own childhood memories of the postwar Soviet occupation of Pinsk, in what
was then Poland's eastern frontier ("something dreadful and incomprehensible...in this world
that I enter at seven years of age"), and takes us up to 1967, when, as a journalist just starting
out, he traveled across a snow-covered and desolate Siberia, and through the Soviet Union's
seven southern and Central Asian republics, territories whose individual histories, cultures, and
religions he found thriving even within the "stiff, rigorous corset of Soviet power."
Between 1989 and 1991, Kapu?ci?ski made a series of extended journeys through the
disintegrating Soviet empire, and his account of these forms the heart of the book. Bypassing
official institutions and itineraries, he traversed the Soviet territory alone, from the border of
Poland to the site of the most infamous gulags in far-eastern Siberia (where "nature pals it up
with the executioner"), from above the Arctic Circle to the edge of Afghanistan, visiting dozens
of cities and towns and outposts, traveling more than 40,000 miles, venturing into the individual
lives of men, women, and children in order to Understand the collapsing but still various larger
life of the empire.
Bringing the book to a close is a collection of notes which, Kapu?ci?ski writes, "arose in the
margins of my journeys" — reflections on the state of the ex-USSR and on his experience of
having watched its fate unfold "on the screen of a television set...as well as on the screen of the
country's ordinary, daily reality, which surrounded me during my travels." It is this "schizophrenic
perception in two different dimensions" that enabled Kapu?ci?ski to discover and illuminate the
most telling features of a society in dire turmoil.
Imperium is a remarkable work from one of the most original and sharply perceptive interpreters
of our world — galvanizing narrative deeply informed by Kapu?ci?ski's limitless curiosity and his
passion for truth, and suffused with his vivid sense of the overwhelming importance of history as
it is lived, and of our constantly shifting places within it.
Insightful reviews
Lazarus P Badpenny Esq: The travelogue aspect of the narrative can give this a slightly
disjointed feel but, after all, this makes no claim to be a definitive history but rather a collection
of encounters and personal reminiscences partially illuminated by Kapuscinski's episodic forays
into the history of the Russian Empire. What does build is the unavoidable sense of tragedy
resultant from the fact that suffering may be at the very centre of the Russian psyche.
Paolo Gianoglio: Appunti di viaggio, impressioni, ricostruzioni della storia più recente. Un libro
per cercare di capire qualcosa di più di quell’immenso territorio che possiamo identificare come
ex URSS. Non solo sotto il profilo storico e geografico, ma anche per respirare sensazioni, stati
d’animo, colori. E’ il primo libro di Kapu?ci?ski che leggo, e devo ammettere di aver molto
apprezzato la prosa fluida, colorata, appassionata e mai pesante. Il libro spazia, l’ordine delle
narrazioni è cronologico, ma non è necessariamente determinante. In questo libro ci si può
perdere, e a volte la sensazione è di essere seduti ad una tavola dopo cena ad ascoltare i
racconti di viaggio di un amico viaggiatore. Colpisce l’umiltà con cui Kapu?ci?ski si pone, sia
nei confronti delle persone che incontra sia soprattutto nei confronti del lettore: nulla da
spiegare, nessuna tesi, nessuna presunzione di spiegare il mondo. Più semplicemente tanta
voglia di raccontare, di “essere al servizio”, di mettere la penna a disposizione di chi abbia
voglia di ascoltare e capire qualcosa di più del mondo che lo circonda. N.B. : da leggere
possibilmente con un Atlante a disposizione, perché un viaggio non si può capire senza
leggerlo sulla mappa.
Giovanna De Sabbata: Imperium è un lungo viaggio nei territori che appartenevano all'Unione
Sovietica. Ormai ha i suoi anni, ma continua a parlare con voce forte e chiara anche oggi. Il
punto di forza del libro è sicuramente lo sguardo personale di Kapuscinski, che non parla mai
per sentito dire, ma racconta solo quello che ha visto, sentito e toccato con mano; in effetti, i
passaggi più coinvolgenti sono quelli in cui l'autore racconta le sue esperienze personali (le
pagine sulla visita nel Nagorno Karabakh, per esempio, sono tra le più angoscianti che abbia
mai letto).
Il territorio abbracciato dalla narrazione è vastissimo, ma ovunque arrivano i tentacoli del potere,
che si irradia da un centro ben preciso: Mosca, e, all'interno di Mosca, il Cremlino, la residenza
dell'Uomo più Importante dell'Impero. Il controllo capillare è sempre presente, sempre
sottinteso, è il fondamento stesso della grande macchina sovietica, che interviene dove e come
vuole, trasformando in paesaggi da incubo anche i territori più belli (il lago d'Aral, per esempio).
Un impero opprimente, quindi, nei confronti della natura e, soprattutto, della popolazione,
sfiancata e rassegnata da anni di convivenza con l'assurdo. Un assurdo e un disagio che si
vedono ancora oggi: le pagine sul soldato dell'aeroporto che per minuti interi confronta la foto
sul passaporto con la faccia di Kapuscinski, quelle sulle porte che non si aprono se non dopo
16 tentativi, sulle finestre che non si chiudono, sulla temperatura dell'acqua che non si regola et
similia sono tuttora attuali e descrivono situazioni in cui si trova spesso chiunque frequenti la
Russia: situazioni in cui non si sa se ridere o piangere, perché non funziona niente di quello che
dovrebbe funzionare, ma nessuno ha voglia di farci qualcosa, e con la realtà, alla fine, si evita di
fare i conti:
Era una delle tipiche situazioni che fanno smarrire tanti occidentali, inclini a prendere la realtà
per quello che sembra: trasparente, logica e comprensibile. Con una filosofia del genere,
l'occidentale gettato allo sbaraglio nel mondo sovietico sente continuamente il terreno sfuggirgli
sotto ai piedi, fino a quando non gli viene spiegato che la realtà che vede non solo non è l'unica,
ma probabilmente neanche la principale.
Interessantissime le parti dedicate agli stati del Caucaso e dell'Asia centrale, un po' ripetitive,
forse, quelle dedicate a Mosca e alla Russia.
Ultima nota sullo stile: è un libro sicuramente ben scritto, scorrevole e articolato, ma a volte si
ha l'impressione che Kapuscinski non sappia se fermarsi alla scrittura di una cronaca brillante o
metterci anche qualcosa del proprio pensiero, e così si impianta a metà strada, buttando uno
spunto di riflessione senza elaborarlo in profondità, e rischia così di suonare un po' retorico.
Una lettura che vale decisamente la pena fare, comunque.
Jan: As said in many of the studies of this book, Kapuscinski is a smart writer. when you've got
now not learn him already, learn this e-book and comprehend why. if you happen to allready
have learn him, you will learn this booklet in response to what you allready have discovered to
know.Having given Kapuscinski the credits he evidently merits for his writing, i feel there's a few
issues that are supposed to be done.-First Kapuscinski stands at the shoulders of giants. His
writing is to an excellent quantity the results of the area people that he meets on his trips and
concurs to open their zone and their lifes to him.-Kapuscinski is a truly talented author indeed,
that experience learn much in regards to the areas and peoples that he visits. On one hand this
is often what consistently makes his writing so alive, anything to return to and skim again, so
informative. however nice literature occasionally can function a fashion of having away with
having little or not anything to truly record from the battleground while his plan fails or while he
doesn't get what he meant out of a trip. awesome examples of this is often his trip on the TransSiberian railway the place he basically observes the Soviet Union during the teach window or to
Nagarno Karabakh the place he's caught inside of an airport, a automobile and a flat. That his
tales is as intriguing, even if he hardly ever event "what the conflict appears like at the ground"
is a transparent signal that his features as dramaturg and author could make up for a slightly
skinny story. even if he will get the opportunity to put in writing the tale he meant from a spot he
visits, the time-frame and the problems he labored less than limits his insights in comparison to
the writers that experience lined the world afer him.-Some paragraphs within the e-book makes
me a piece doubtful approximately how sturdy the interpretation is (my evaluation relies upon
the Norwegian translation). within the first bankruptcy - Pinsk '39 the remark of a NKVD officer
vacationing their condo "Muzh kuda?" is traslated "where is your husband" rather than the
proper "Where have your husband gone", that means that the NKVD officer allready is familiar
with that he has lately been within the house, that means a person has infomed the NKVD that
Kapuscinski's father (a hunted partisan) has lately been within the house. such things as this
isn't an enormous deal, however it makes you start considering the standard of the
interpretation typically and if it may be the case that the writer underplays the function of
standard humans as informers within the terror.-In his tale in regards to the battle in Pinsk 1939,
his reminiscence of the occasions as a baby most likely is a vital expalianation in the back of the
traits of the stories. within the reminiscence of a kid occasions that may most likely be defined
as horrorful and unhappy by means of a grown up, within the eyes of a smal shild will get
exciting, intriguing, colourful and all the way down to earth.All in all, Kapuscinski is sweet
examining and Imperium is a brilliant intruduciton to the previous Soviet Republics. To get
precise perception within the modern former Soviet Republics, you will want extra interpreting
though.
Alvin: A riveting, erudite, passionate, and wonderfully written little bit of historic journalism.
Kapuscinski is relentlessly subjective and sometimes whimsical, yet one feels that such an
procedure deals a extra telling portrait of its topic (Mother Russia and its imperial dominions)
than any longer prosaic and fact-laden account ever could.
Antigone: The Imperium in query is the USSR and Mr. Kapuscinski, a well known Polish
journalist/philosopher, brings his trademark inquisitiveness to endure on its fearsome collapse.
vacationing a number of areas over the process a number of years, we come face-to-face with
the harmful burden of governance-by-threat and the humanity surviving underneath it. The
history, the rules and the standard trouble Mr. Kapuscinski relays are stark and attractive in
scope. A fine, nice author who's hugely urged to you by way of Christopher Hitchens, Salman
Rushdie, John Le Carre and, a bit of much less notably, myself.
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