Flights

Kunicki is a salesman for a publishing house in Warsaw; he is married to Jagoda, with whom he has a son, and expresses regret at having been raised in a northern, “masculine” society that celebrates suppressing emotions. Through the story of his wife and son’s brief disappearance while on vacation in Croatia, Kunicki’s character changes from one of stasis and disinterest in his life or surroundings; he becomes paranoid about his interactions with others and the signs he suspects he sees around him. Through Kunicki’s preoccupation with Jagoda’s lies, the narrator explores the impact that inconsistency can have on an individual raised to have highly consistent, culturally determined behaviors.

Jagoda and their son are not the focus of the narrator’s writing in these vignettes, which never explore Jagoda’s inner world. The reader only encounters her after her disappearance, so her inconsistent and vague behavior is the only referent the reader has for her character. Following her return, Jagoda expects Kunicki to accept that people simply disappear sometimes and that no further explanation is necessary. She owns elegant clothing, which Kunicki finds in the closet, but rarely wears it. She cares for her son. In Kunicki’s stories, she is the antagonist, as she withholds information that keeps Kunicki from establishing a secure emotional bond with her and their son before she leaves Kunicki entirely.

As an anatomist, Dr. Blau is interested in preserving the human form through specimens, photographs, and anatomical research. He is divorced and often seduces the young medical and anatomical students he interacts with as a lecturer and cataloguer. He is attracted to youth and aesthetic form, and he takes photographs of his student lovers to preserve both.

When offered access to Professor Mole’s anatomical laboratory on the condition that he assume the role of lover to the now widowed Taina, Dr. Blau is unable to sacrifice his preference for youth and beauty. This capacity for desire (or lack thereof) determines his professional trajectory, so that by the end of this fictional vignette he has returned to his former position as cataloguer and illicit photographer.