{"id":74919,"date":"2014-08-04T19:30:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T23:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=74919"},"modified":"2014-08-04T19:14:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T23:14:40","slug":"birthday-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/04\/birthday-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Witold_Gombrowicz_by_Bohdan_Paczowski_-_detail\"<\/a>

Not, here, in his birthday suit. Photo: Bohdan Paczowski<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

What did \u015amieja say about me in the discussion in defense of my diary? \u201cHis brutality, egocentrism, and arrogance toward writers of lesser stature may be distressing \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

But no! He misinterprets me! With me there are no \u201cwriters of lesser stature.\u201d This again is a collective viewpoint. It is true that I sometimes demolish, with gusto, in jest, by attacking, writers, but only those who prance around in their epaulets. I have never really taken part in a single duel while clad in my stripes and epaulets; I have never written a single word dressed in anything but my birthday suit.<\/p>\n

\u2014Witold Gombrowicz, 1961, Diary<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Witold Gombrowicz was born 110 years ago today. In 2012, the Daily published five excerpts from Gombrowicz\u2019s Diary<\/em>, widely considered his masterpiece. You can read them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What did \u015amieja say about me in the discussion in defense of my diary? \u201cHis brutality, egocentrism, and arrogance toward writers of lesser stature may be distressing \u2026 \u201d But no! He misinterprets me! With me there are no \u201cwriters of lesser stature.\u201d This again is a collective viewpoint. It is true that I sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9064],"tags":[9158,7682,14852,14851,14853,14550,7822],"class_list":["post-74919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quote-unquote","tag-birthdays","tag-diaries","tag-duels","tag-literary-feuds","tag-polish-writers","tag-twentieth-century","tag-witold-gombrowicz"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBirthday Suit by Dan Piepenbring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 4, 2014 \u2013 What did \u015amieja say about me in the discussion in defense of my diary? \u201cHis brutality, egocentrism, and arrogance toward writers of lesser stature may be\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/04\/birthday-suit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birthday Suit by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 4, 2014 \u2013 What did \u015amieja say about me in the discussion in defense of my diary? 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