{"id":17139,"date":"2026-04-28T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/?p=17139"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:56:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:56:03","slug":"new-evil-empire-is-rising-a-writer-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/new-evil-empire-is-rising-a-writer-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a New Evil Empire Emerging? A Stark Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Patrycja Krzeszowska: What makes a radio or print journalist start writing books\u2014novels and poetry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piotr Gociek:<\/strong> In my case, it was the other way around. I began with poetry and short stories. Poetry\u2014because I fell in love. Stories\u2014because I loved speculative fiction. It offered not only respite and a form of escapism in the late communist period, but also a kind of education. Among fans of speculative fiction, those who read it often feel, sooner or later, the urge to try writing themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always thought of myself as a writer, but writing alone was not enough to make a living. So throughout my life I had to do other things: radio, television, journalism. These days I run my own YouTube channel, Piotr Gociek Zaprasza<\/a><\/em>, where I talk about literature with interesting people\u2014writers, translators, critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there anything specific that inspires your work? If you had to point to a single moment\u2014or perhaps books you have read?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would certainly be easier for me to point to writers than to individual poems or novels. The poetry of Zbigniew Herbert, the sung poetry of Jacek Kaczmarski, the prose of Philip K. Dick. A little later, I was profoundly struck by the poetry and essays of Joseph Brodsky. When I was young, I fell in love with the prose of Kurt Vonnegut and Mario Vargas Llosa. An immensely important book for me was The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. Every Christmas, I return to Tolkien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Piotr
Photo: Youtube.com\/@PiotrGociekZaprasza (screen)<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The power of fantasy: 3 reasons to keep returning to it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many people believe fantasy is just bedtime reading\u2014pleasant, but lacking deeper value or ideals. Do you agree?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course not. When Theodore Sturgeon heard that 90 percent of science fiction was rubbish, he replied: \u201cBut 90 percent of everything is rubbish!\u201d And he was right. Most poetry, prose, and non-fiction is quickly forgotten. Fantasy is not an exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time when it was treated with disdain is over. Writers such as Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, William Gibson, or Philip K. Dick are now recognised simply as outstanding authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fantasy is becoming more and more popular. What are we looking for in it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three reasons. The first is the need for rest and escapism. The second is the need for wonder\u2014for fairy tale, for enchantment. But there is also a third reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fantasy provides an excellent metaphor for describing our world\u2014what it is like, what traumas afflict us, what we fear. There is a strong current in fantasy that warns against various dangers, and another in which authors ask what might happen if society were subjected to far-reaching change. What would life look like after a great catastrophe? What if an invention appeared that turned our everyday existence completely upside down?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human beings do not change. We remain the same as we were thousands of years ago. The same impulses that drove the people of ancient Greece and Rome to war still drive us today. Everything else is merely changing scenery. That is why we should always ask what truth about human beings these stories reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think literature can help people understand themselves better\u2014and each other\u2014even when they disagree?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe so, because literature operates through metaphor and parable. By their nature, they invite reflection\u2014provided they are not written in an overly tendentious way. Persuasion cannot be the primary aim of literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parables, fairy tales<\/a>, moral stories, or stories that warn against a world in which morality has ceased to exist reach people more naturally. They encourage deeper reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your books, the world often appears as a place of sharp ideological and civilisational conflict. How, in such a vision, do we avoid forgetting that a political opponent is still a human being?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharp conflicts are not only present in my books\u2014they exist in all good literature, because they exist in the world. Even in children\u2019s literature we find a fundamental conflict between good and evil. In fairy tales, this conflict is as stark as it can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe a writer should stand on the side of the good. And evil? Evil must be analysed in order to be understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we describe a complex world where different perspectives collide, we often find that the most compelling characters are those who are morally ambiguous. Characters like Kmicic from Sienkiewicz\u2019s The Deluge<\/em>, of whom Wo\u0142odyjowski said that as much good as evil resides within him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such characters are not meant to justify evil, but to reveal the human being in all their complexity\u2014to show the depth of their fall. A writer should observe from a distance, almost like a researcher, and judge both sides with severity. That is what distinguishes purely escapist literature from literature that changes us. It has a purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Piotr
Photo: Piotr Gociek\u2019s private archive<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Too much information, too little truth. We are losing our judgement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s world\u2014looking at media and politics\u2014do people still have the freedom to choose between good and evil?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of us still has that freedom. But we live in a time when media create enormous confusion in people\u2019s minds. We are constantly bombarded with messages\u2014political, ideological, but also purely commercial ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greatest problem today is not access to information, but its selection. The best way to preserve common sense is not to rely on a single source, but to compare different ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may sound utopian, because we all suffer from a lack of time. Time has become both our greatest resource and our greatest deficit. That is precisely why we must manage it wisely. This is one of the reasons I follow contemporary literary trends less and less. I do not regret spending time returning to the classics\u2014to The Magic Mountain<\/em>, The Doll<\/em>, Dune<\/em>, or my beloved The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. As it turns out, these old stories have not aged at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does writing help you organise the world, or better understand people?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing is a fascinating process, but one that is extremely difficult to describe, because much of it takes place beyond our conscious awareness. Certain things simply do not begin to happen until you sit down and write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me give an example. Very often we need a conversation with another person, because only when we begin to explain something, to tell a story, do we suddenly realise that it is through the act of telling that we fully understand it. By sharing it, we discover meanings and answers that were previously hidden. Literature is such a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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