The Motion Demon

 


 

THE MOTION DEMON


 

Stefan Grabinski


 


 

Translated by

Miroslaw Lipinski


 


 


 


 


 


 

First Polish Edition published in 1919
First English translation published in 2005 by Ash-Tree Press

E-book edition published in 2011

Introduction and translation copyright 2005 by Miroslaw Lipinski


 

Cover painting: Peter Helck

Please note: This translation uses British punctuation and spelling

 


 


 

CONTENTS


 

INTRODUCTION

ENGINE-DRIVER GROT

THE WANDERING TRAIN

THE MOTION DEMON

THE SLOVEN

THE PERPETUAL PASSENGER

IN THE COMPARTMENT

SIGNALS

THE SIDING

ULTIMA THULE

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VOICES in fantastique literature, Stefan Grabinski, was born in the small town of Kamionka Strumilowa, Poland on 26 February 1887. Not part of any literary clique or movement, he suffered for his originality and the limitations imposed on him by being a writer in a country that did not fully recognize his work or take it seriously. Sickly and suffering from bone tuberculosis at an early age, Grabinski became seduced by the supernatural and introverted explorations into the mysteries of life. For his daily bread, he worked as a teacher in a secondary school, but his passion was writing strange fictions that focused on his atypical concerns and interests.

In ‘O tworczosci fantastycznej’ (Lwowskie Wiadomosci Muzyczne i Literackie, no. 10, 1928), Stefan Grabinski proposed calling his fiction work ‘psychofantasy’ or ‘metafantasy’. Unlike straightforward, conventional fantasy that displayed the outward and ornamental, this type of fantasy would source psychological, philosophical, or metaphysical concerns. Most of Grabinski’s fiction shares this inner-investigatory drive, with added impulses. ‘Wonder and fear—these are my guiding motives,’ Grabinski wrote in ‘Wyznania’ (Polonia, no.141, 1926). Also unmistakable in his work is a keen sense of individualism, even an unapologetic misanthropy, and a resultant predilection to choose as his protagonists solitary men who travel along little explored paths and are proud of doing so. An opponent of mechanism, Grabinski alerted the modern world to forces supernatural and unexpected that would never go away, no matter how materially advanced and spiritually disregardful the world would become. For Grabinski, one of the most puzzling forces, equally dangerous and liberating, was the human mind itself, and the Polish writer became a master at tracing neurotic constructs, insane theorems, and hyper phobias. Yet whatever the madness, Grabinski loved his lunatics, for they shared with him a maverick quality that was born of the spirit and of an individualistic, albeit at times wayward, intellect.

A short self-published volume of stories, Z wyjaktow. W pomrokach wiary (From the Unusual. In the Shadows of Belief, Lwow, 1909), under the pseudonym Stefan Zalny, went unnoticed, but Grabinski’s official debut, Na wgorzu roz (On the Hill of Roses, 1918), caught the attention of a renowned Polish critic, Karol Irzykowski, who wrote: ‘Rarely in our country does an artistic debut exhibit so distinct an individuality.’ (‘Fantastyka’, Maski, no. 33, 1918). The six-story collection showcased splendidly Grabinski’s unique themes centered on aberrant psychology and the supernatural forces that lie in wait for vengeance or malicious notice. Indeed, nothing like this had appeared in Polish literature before—nor in supernatural fiction worldwide had anyone bothered with the analysis.

With rail travel being the dominant mode of quick transportation at the time, it was Grabinski’s next short story collection, Demon ruchu (The Motion Demon, 1919), which made the most impact in Poland, though the book’s influence could not extend farther due to a lack of Polish translators and an international lack of interest in Polish literature. Compiling train stories that he had written for magazines and newspapers, Grabinski used the train world as a metaphor for life’s energies and impulses, as he merged the ‘vital energy’ theories of Henri Bergson with the theories of motion promoted by scientists like Newton and Einstein. Memorable mavericks people these stories, where even a simple thing such as a train ride can offer telling clues to the metaphysical and the beyond.

Grabinski’s next collection, Szalony patnik (The Insane Pilgrim, 1920), further explored the wayward consciousness and included Grabinski’s supreme artistic statement, ‘The Area’. In the story, Grabinski’s alter-ego, Wrzesmian, secludes himself in a lonely house at the outskirts of town. His eyes and spirit fixated on a deserted mansion opposite him, he dreams to life peculiar people who inhabit the building, and who, one night, compel him to step outside the safety of his abode and fully enter into a dream world of his creations—with tragic results. The activation of thought, its source as the seed of reality, is key to understanding the power Grabinski gave to ideas and the supernatural. Unlike many a fantasist, he believed in the supernatural meanings of what he wrote. None of his works were simple entertainments; they all carried the power of an idea and the expression of a sincere, yearning soul.

Ksiega ognia (The Book of Fire, 1922) returned Grabinski to a collection centered on a single subject matter—fire this time. Though the book didn’t have the success of his earlier volume of train stories, in many ways it can be considered an equal, if not greater, masterpiece. Reading these gems, so artfully constructed, it is impossible not to be affected by them and consider the fire element from a primal, respectful, and fearing perspective, which was, in part, Grabinski’s intent.

In the 1920s Grabinski sought newer creative horizons in longer formats, and his short story output began to decrease considerably after the publication of Niesamowita opowiesc (A Weird Tale, 1922), which continued Grabinski’s precise and perceptive journeys into the mind and the supernatural. His first novel, Salamandra (The Salamander), written in the fall and winter of 1922, but appearing in print two years later, in 1924, contains a flavourfully bold description of the Sabbath, yet modern tastes may have difficulty with the book’s heavy dependency on the occult and its terminology.

Cien Bafometa (Baphomet’s Shadow, 1926) is probably Grabinski’s most fully realized and successful longer work. It deals with the traditional subject of Good vs. Evil, but introduces an original compendium of sinister, seemingly disjointed events to comment powerfully on moral responsibility. Pawelek Kuternozka, the devilish seller of religious objects, takes his place as one of the most memorable characters in supernatural fiction, and Wrzesmian, the master fantasist of ‘The Area’, turns up in a chapter to render service to his creator by countering superficial critics who were already attacking Grabinski’s work with snobbish glee.