All Things Pankish

Ask the Author: Russell Evatt

Ex-pat and writer Russell Evatt talks with J. Bradley about American jokes, Polish pop culture, and last lines. Read his Poem ending with a fragment from A Theory of Truth in the November issue.

1. You currently live in Poland. Do the Polish tell jokes involving Americans i.e. “How many Americans does it take to build a nation? None, they always leave a mess”?

I haven’t heard any Poles telling jokes about Americans. Most Poles know someone (a friend or family member) who has lived or is living in America (usually Chicago) and they have a positive opinion about the US. One reason for this is that many Polish immigrants speak favorably about their experience abroad not necessarily because it was favorable but so that their families back home in Poland won’t say “I told you so.” I’ve heard lots of Americans tell jokes about America, though. And lots of Poles make sarcastic asides about Poland (usually about the infrastructure).

I did hear a joke last week about how Czech women don’t take care of themselves like Polish women do, but that’s maybe a different conversation (that I’m afraid to enter).

2. What do you love about poetry? What do you hate?

I love that poetry can be succinct and exact. Every aspect of a poem is important and I enjoy thinking about these aspects both when reading and when working on my own writing.

But I hate that poetry can sometimes feel too exact and that this makes a poem feel overworked. Sometimes I think the meaning, or what the poem is about, should be more important than a specific word choice. I think subject sometimes gets overlooked in lieu of pretty words (such as the word ‘lieu’). Though I must admit that I spend a lot of time over a specific word choice. Words do matter, but so does subject.

Some days I agree with what I have just said and some days I completely disagree. I hope this says less about me and more about the nature of poetry and its possibilities.

3. What’s Polish pop culture like?

Everyone dresses very fancily in the newest, trendiest clothes. There are exceptions, but they’re marginal. I used to think that I dressed up because I would often get compliments about looking nice. No one compliments you on dressing up here because it’s the norm. If they did, they would spend all of their time complimenting each other.

Poles are also very interested in footwear (they seem to have a foot fetish, or maybe just a footwear fetish) and there are numerous high-end shoe stores around town. Women wear high heels and fancy boots. While I do find this attractive, I can’t help but want to ask them if they are at all concerned about proper foot care. I have seen one instance where a man was carrying a woman who was holding her high heels in her hands and both of her heels (foot-heels?) had been bandaged heavily.

As for music, American pop is famous and recent live performances include a diverse group such as Madonna, The Killers, 50cent, Lenny Kravitz, and Gogol Bordello. There are also some Polish bands that are worth checking out such as Coma and Czeslaw Spiewa. And for some polish rap be sure to give Peja or Eldo a listen.

4. You get the chance to play Capture the Flag for one million Euros but you must choose a disbanded rock group from the 80s to be on your team. Which band would you choose and why?

My initial thought is Def Leppard so I’ll go with that even though they have apparently continued rocking well into the 90s and the 00s. Rick Allen seems like a man who might be interested in helping me capture a flag. If a one-armed man can rock the drums to the lyrics ‘pour some sugar on me,’ I have a feeling that man might also have some pretty creative ideas when it comes to capturing an enemy’s flag. He has, after all, designed a drum set specifically for use by a one armed man (himself).

5. Other than writing and living in Poland, what are you really into right now?

The Office. I enjoyed the British version very much but I have to say that I think the American version is my favorite. I am also a recent fan of The Young Turks podcast. They have some good ideas and it’s usually entertaining/knowledgeable. I am also into Fantasy Football. I had never played before this season but I am now in two leagues and, if I may say so, I am doing quite well. This either means I know what I am doing or that the other people in my league aren’t taking it very seriously. I have a feeling it is probably the latter but I still get excited when my team gets a victory.

6. Futbol or football: which is better for you?

Without a doubt it’s football. I’ve never been that interested in futbol, but everyone here loves it. In fact, I would venture that roughly 65-75% of graffiti around Krakow is about which soccer team is the best. There are two teams here (Wisla and Cracovia) and these names get written on everything. Sometimes you see a wall where Wisla has been crossed out and then Cracovia above it has been crossed out and someone has re-written Wisla. It’s like there’s a contest between fans to claim each building in Krakow for their favorite soccer team.

As for watching football, there are a few bars here that show NFL games but they are bars in hotels where the beer is twice as expensive as normal and you have to listen to the bartender answer tourists’ questions about pierogi.

7. The last line of your poem in this issue is really interesting. How did this piece come about?

This piece came about while I was reading different books about logic. I was taking a lot of notes while reading of both my own ideas and quotes from whatever book I happened to be reading. Inevitably, the notes and my thoughts get mixed up and a few months or so later I can’t always remember who said what.

Half of the last line is taken from a book called The Theory of Truth or something like that. There are many books with titles like this and I think that maybe this is the point: the original sources don’t matter as much as our interpretation of them. I’m not big on citations. The quote about understanding the language in which it is stated was meant, within the context of the book, to be about understanding the terms of a specific language (English) and not about the differences of, say, Polish or Spanish. I found that a lot of statements made in these logic books could be quite funny and/or ridiculous when taken out of context. So I created my own context for this line in hopes that it would resonate in a different manner.

8. How has your time abroad influenced your writing?

I think I’ll take the easy way out and say it’s too early to tell. I’m not sure what direct effect this has had yet, but in everyday life I now experience a large percentage of my day in a state of confusion. My Polish isn’t that good so I have to rely on situational contexts and guesses most of the time in order to understand what someone might be saying to me. I have found that everyday I understand a few more words and all the mystery is slowly fading away as I hear people around town express the same concerns as people around any town.