Stefan Grabinski
Zothique 11

The Polish writer Stefan Grabinski (1887-1936) is to be considered a master of European fantastic literature and one of the giants of this literary genre. The critic Karol Irzykowski has dubbed him, perhaps a bit forcibly, the “Polish Poe” but undoubtedly from the perspective of value, the comparison does not sound blasphemous. Grabinski is a very modern author, a contemporary of the American H.P. Lovecraft. Along with the latter, and other “weird” writers like William Hope Hodgson and Jean Ray, he contributed to rejuvenating the “topoi” of gothic literature based on the new scientific discoveries of Einstein that diminished the importance of humans in time and space. Another significant influence comes from psychoanalysis and the discovery of the unconscious by Freud. It is no coincidence that Francesco Corigliano, in his excellent and recent La letteratura weird. Narrare l’impensabile, compared the work of Lovecraft and Jean Ray to that of Stefan Grabinski as, according to the author, these authors (but I would also recall the aforementioned Hodgson) captured the impulses of modernity. In this sense, it is correct to associate these writers with the literary movement of “modernism” .

Now, after the 2 publications Il villaggio nero by Edizioni Hypnos (translated by Andrea Bonazzi who was also a pioneer in introducing the Polish writer in an issue of the now-untraceable Hypnos fanzine) and Il demone del moto published by Stampa Alternativa, the magazine Zothique (curated by the tireless Pietro Guarriello) dedicates a special to Stefan Grabinski. As usual, the contributions are very in-depth: Michols Magnolia in Vita di Stefan Grabinski: dalla Polonia alla Fantasia, talks about the biography of the writer and his themes, also identifying a possible parallel with H.P. Lovecraft (indeed there are affinities in their troubled lives and the same Stanislaw Lem has defined him as "the Polish Lovecraft"). Surely there can be connections, as I wrote above, but care must be taken with exaggerations. Ultimately, Grabinski's narrative is very original and resembles only itself as Obsidian Mirror highlights in his article Il villaggio nero. Curiously, the author of the text first read a volume in English by the Polish writer namely The Dark Domain, although he later recovered the 2 works in Italian that he talks about at length. Obsidian Mirror analyzes some of his best stories by connecting his ties with the philosophy of Bergson and his concept of time. Sulla letteratura fantastica is instead an essay by Grabinski himself in which he highlights his tastes and his conception of the fantastic. Essentially, he divides the fantastic into the modern (direct, external, and conventional) and the superior order (internal, psychological, or metaphysical) defined by him as "psychofantastic" or "metafantastic". In the first type, he includes E.T.A. Hoffmann, an author not particularly appreciated by him, while the second (in which he notes how “psychology reigns supreme”) obviously includes Edgar Allan Poe. I then found very interesting the interview with Grabinski published here where he reaffirms his affinity with Poe “rather than E.T.A. Hoffmann,” says he appreciates Alfred Kubin and Gustav Meyrink and, somewhat surprisingly, does not hide his disdain for Hanns Heinz Ewers whom he considers a charlatan and is horrified by critics who compare him to his work. There are also insights into the fallout of Grabinski's universe in film. Finally, we also find 2 of his unpublished stories in Italy namely Fumo Infernale and La Masseria del Delirio, both of high level. I particularly appreciated the latter where a haunted farmhouse leads to the protagonist's psychological ruin. Here, I found the influence of Poe.

The second part of the magazine is dedicated to Marco Marra and Gerardo Spirito, 2 local writers who have drawn on “lovecraftian” narrative by bringing its themes to Southern Italy. Finally the demonstration of how (following, as Guarriello notes, authors like Sergio Bissoli, the more famous Eraldo Baldini, and the late Elvezio Sciallis) the landscapes of our peninsula (as well understood by the authors of the gothic novel) are well suited to “weird” themes. Pietro Guarriello himself talks about them in depth in the interesting article Se Lovecraft fosse nato in Campania…. There’s more to chew on with the presentation of the winning stories of the second edition of the Altroquando festival. An obligatory mention goes to the splendid cover image by Gino Carosini and the numerous illustrations among which we can see photographs of the buildings where Grabinski lived. The standards of Zothique are generally good but this issue is simply unmissable.