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Symbolic Migration to the Super-West in the Polish Pomeranian Press of the 19305 On the pages of the journals we can find various Others. Ihe photographic material which was analysed exhibits a lack of a dominant subject. However, it seems possible to distinguish a large group of photographs that can be reduced to two groups, specifically presenting close and distant Others‘. Because the subject of ‘close Others’ has been covered extensively in many studies (war caricature, the images of fools, beggars), I focus my attention on the analysis of visual representations of distant Others, i.e. the super-West. For this purpose I discuss the selected images of the New World. America is described as a land of pragmatic inventions, sophisticated ideas and peculiar people. Selected images of America exemplify how evolutionary desires of Europeans and their sentiments towards the Antipodes materialise (Weglarz 1994: 85). Approaches to America at that time in Western European countries were ambiguous, making the New World resemble the bipolar face of the Other. Writers such as George Orwell or Matthew Arnold openly criticised America’s hypnotising influence on European society. In their opinion, the weirdness of American thought was dangerous to European countries. The democratisation of life was perceived as backwardness. They claimed that equality of all ideas and attitudes was not the key to modernity, but efficient management by state administration was the way to success (Arnold 1932: 6). Aldous Huxley, on the other hand, had a totally different view of America. During his first trip to the States, the writer, spellbound by the view of shopping malls and skyscrapers, praised the victory of wisdom over superstition. The metropolitan architecture of American cities, with the diminishing dominance of churches, gave him hope for a scientific and rational future that would be universally worth imitating (Johnson 1979: 50). In the analysed photographic material critical images of America are close to non-existent. It appears that Pomeranian journals share Huxley’s optimistic viewpoint. The concept of America built upon printed images had culturally important functions. Compensation was certainly one of them. The comparison of such areas of life as Pomeranian and American economy, technology or industry prompted Polish readers to migrate symbolically to the super-West. Photographs by Pomeranian photojournalists show the interfusion of basic aspects of strangeness—the remoteness of the territory, the high affluence status (Waldenfels 2002: 157). These images contribute to the Polish fascination with the modernity of the far-away land from across the ocean. Geographical remoteness is associated here with a presumption of the mental distinctiveness of the people of the West—it is usual to assign supernatural features to strangers (Ibid.: 161). The strangeness of Americans is caricatural, to some extent. Their innovativeness and pragmatism, in line with the ‘do it yourself” rule, created peculiar ideas. A sunbather in an alligator leather swimsuit (Fig. 128), a roadside shrine in the airport next to the images of a sad millionaire, a prisoner living a comfortable life and a birdman (Fig. 129) can all evoke cogni ‘See different ways of defining and perceiving Others, in: Demski 2013: 70-73. 315
