“The nineteenth century seems to have slipped through our fingers”: an Interview with Jan Maszczyszyn

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31261/SSP.2022.20.01

Keywords:

steampunk, Maszczyszyn, Solar Trilogy, science, retrofuturism

Abstract

The aim of this interview is to familiarize readers with Jan Maszczyszyn, a writer of Polish origin living in Australia, and with his flagship work, Solar Trilogy. The first part of the interview concerns his experiences as reader and author, and also contains a brief description of steampunk, which is his literary mode of choice. This part of the interview is also about retrofuturism, associated with nostalgic and melancholic ways of thinking about the nineteenth century. The second part of the interview is devoted to Solar Trilogy and some of its motifs. Here Maszczyszyn talks about the sources on which he drew in the creation of the fictional universe of the Trilogy as well as the method of creating it. He also talks about the scientific theories that inspired the creation of that universe and about the scientific interpretations of the world related to it. 

References

Flammarion Kamil, 1868: Wielość światów zamieszkiwanych. Studyjum w którem wykładają się warunki zamieszkalności ziem niebieskich, roztrząsane ze stanowiska astronomii, fizyjologii i filozofii naturalnej. Przeł. Jakub Waga. W Drukarni Józefa Ungra, Warszawa.

Maszczyszyn Jan, 2021a: Chronometrus. Powieść chronomocyjna. Genius Creations, Bydgoszcz.

Maszczyszyn Jan, 2021b: Szlachcic na Marsie. W: Antologia polskiej fantastyki. Wybór i posł. Wojtek Sedeńko. Stalker Books, Olsztyn [e-book, epub].

Published

2022-09-27

How to Cite

Maszczyszyn, J., & Zielonka, K. K. (2022). “The nineteenth century seems to have slipped through our fingers”: an Interview with Jan Maszczyszyn. Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne [Silesian Journal of Polish Studies], 20(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.31261/SSP.2022.20.01