Quote: writer Olga Tokarczuk on Poland, homophobia, the LGBTQ rainbow flag, and literalism

 

Hello, dear friends,
 
"One of the recent examples of literalism is the struggle over the rainbow taking place in Poland. One might even laugh about it, were it not for the fact that people are being put in jail. The rainbow has lost its multitude of meanings and has been literalized; it has lost its status as a symbol or metaphor and turned into a symbol of everything that deviates from a wrongly understood normality. It has been recognized as an enemy flag and seriously hated. A person suffering from literalism sees everything separately, devoid of contexts and connections, and, to their own misfortune and that of others, loses the sense of synthesis necessary to experience a comprehensive and multidimensional world. <...> Perhaps this partly happened because we have stopped participating in the narrative. In that multidimensional, indirect, intellectual challenge that reflects the complexity of the world." Olga Tokarczuk
 
I felt compelled to make this post because the exact same things are happening in Poland as in Lithuania. Individual compatriots gather and shout that gays and lesbians have stolen the rainbow from the children, completely lacking any broader understanding. What is this "literalism," according to Olga Tokarczuk? Literalism is a way of thinking where the world loses its multidimensionality and wholeness, turning into separate fragments devoid of context. It is an inability to interpret complex symbols or ideas, resulting in the false simplification of reality into primitive, often hostile labels.
 
In her book The Empathetic Teller, the author puts forward the idea that it is deep reading, identification with literature, and empathy for characters that allow a person to form a nuanced understanding and acceptance of the world. The crisis of reading has essentially fragmented people; they tend to fragment diversity and cast out the parts they do not like from the whole, pitting them against each other and creating imaginary enemies. The LGBTQ case is just one of many examples. Interestingly, politics and politicians take advantage of this; they understand the power of darkness and the benefits of primitivism for their interests, which is why literalism is surreptitiously promoted through, I would say, the lowering of the standards of education and science, and the switching off of critical thinking.

M. S.