Oldal 387 [387]
Comrade Ragball and a Slimeball as Unigue Visions of the Other in Postwar Poland
He is also ruthless and ready to sacrifice (gnoid; literally, manure) his friends and
subordinates. One of them is a semi-illiterate but stubborn peasant character called
Deptata (“Trampler’), whom he persecuted and even tortured once with his party
comrades. In Figure 4, Deptala is depicted as a peasant wearing rubber boots and
overalls, he is also shown as smaller than Szmaciak and leaning forward to show
his humility. When Deptata, now a foreman in the plant, comes to see Szmaciak
in a dream, Szmaciak reacts in a defensive way because he is afraid that somebody
stronger is behind the peasant, and he listens for clues.
Szmaciak would have long slated him
And kicked him out of the door fast,
But the thought keeps pestering him
‘That someone hid behind the bastard
And sent the imbecile in here
To throw him off his office stool.
Szmaciak thinks hard how to destroy Deptala and hatches a scheme to black¬
mail Deptata and at the same time use him to ruin the career of the local militia
head, whom Szmaciak dislikes intensely. In the end Szmaciak dreams that Deptata
and his worker companions gain the upper hand over him, laugh at him, and
threaten to slaughter him for meat. When thus threatened, Szmaciak shows his
spinelessness and blames his party comrades for all the excesses, thus living up to
his name again.
‘Thus onto his knees he fell
And begs: You won't do that to me!
I’m innocent, I wanted good
But THEY kept forcing me!
How could I have resisted THEM
When I had a pistol against my head?!
At the same time he has grand, although totally surrealistic, plans for his small
town—a motorway, industry, an airport, a harbour, a university, museums—all to
amaze the world. His plans fall through as might be expected and he has to save his
skin. A ragball as he is, Szmaciak does not shy away from more or less illicit busi¬
nesses—in fact, he is ready to deal with anyone, including the church, if that helps
him out. Since the factory he helped build in Pcim has difficulty selling the unnec¬
essary sheet metal, he is planning to start the production of religious paraphernalia,
thus showing his opportunism again.
He is also keen to seek pleasure: drink, smoke, and most importantly women.
He is particularly keen on the daughter of one of his comrades, whose name is
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