QUEERWARSAW
Nasierowski Jerzy
Even if by the consent of the communist machinery, Na Przełaj succeeded in making an ideological breakthrough. Thanks to similar publications about homosexuality, people finally began to write and speak loudly about it. Until then, this and other social problems such as drugs, unemployment and prostitution were covered with an embargo of silence, in accordance with the principle that difficulties which are not uttered simply do not exist. In the mid-1980s, however, the authorities figured out that some sentiments among the youth cannot be pacified, so they tried to canalize them, allowing the organization of festivals such as rock concerts or more open publications in the press and media. See also: ▶ Press
Nasierowski Jerzy writer, born in 1933
Jerzy Nasierowski is an extremely interesting and complex figure. As a young promising author (Godzina pąsowej róży [The Hour of the Crimson Rose], filmed by Irena Bielińska, 1963), he became a face of one of the most infamous cultural scandals and court trials of the 1970s. It all happened due to his shady sexual relations with the crime world. He used his contacts to help criminals organise robberies. Convicted of murdering a housemaid of Mira Zimińska-Sygietyńska, a famous actress before the World War II, a murder which was actually committed by her husband, Nasierowski was sentenced to prison, where he wrote a novel Zbrodnia i… [Crime and…], which he first published under a pseudonym Jerzy Trębicki thanks to the patronage of another controversial writer, Roman Bratny. A half of the first edition of Zbrodnia i…, a prison epic and a gay romance, was censored. The edition of 70 000 copies was allegedly sold out in two days. Reprinting was not allowed. Then the book was chopped into short volumes. It was not until 2006 when a gay-friendly publishing house Ha!art decided to publish a full, two-volume version.
74. The house where Jerzy Nasierowski lived
In his novel Nasierowski took stock of his life before prison, which involved time spent in rendezvous spots, the crime world; above all, however, he shows a brutal reality behind bars, i.e. social relations between inmates, routines, sexual life. Still, he leaves room for tenderness and love. Exhibitionism and explicitness of Nasierowski's writing is certainly interesting. However, it is difficult to treat his nickname “Polish Genet”, which he was given on the basis of biographical similarities and fascination, seriously.
125