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Zbigniew Batko - (Kamion, 11 October 1940 – Łódź, 18 December 2007) was a Polish novelist, translator and screenwriter. Autor of two novels: Z powrotem, czyli fatalne skutki niewłaściwych lektur (Backwards, that is fatal effects of inappropriate reading) and Oko (The Eye).

The second novel was nominated to Janusz A. Zajdel Award-the annual award given by Polish science fiction and fantasy fandom.

In his books author mainly plays with encountered earlier styles and conventions. Often refers to other works directly.

Andrzej Chojecki –polish philologist called writer the first Polish postmodernist, although his first book was created in the 60’s when the movement was not yet known in Poland.

Life and Career
Zbigniew Batko was born in Kamion – small village in center part of Poland. He had two older sisters. Maria - eight years older and Irena - two years older than him. The father and mother worked as teachers of humanities subjects. When he was 3 years old Zbigniew’s father died tragically.

After The Second World War, his mother as a teacher was assigned to a primary school in Kazimierz Porąbka near Sosnowiec. Family had to move there.

Zbigniew Batko went to school earlier than average Polish child - at the age of 6 years.

According to the memories of older siotry- Irena Szwajger, he was smart, intelligent, had no difficulty in learning, loved reading books.

Even as a child he was interested in the film making and photography. Graduated from high school in Gogolin, where he took extra English lessons.

After that he graduated from the Polish philology at the University of Lodz, specializing in the theory and history of film. After graduation he worked with the monthly Polish magazine Film na Świecie (Film in the World) published by Polish Federation of Film Societies as a film critic and popularizer of the art of film.

Since 1990r he worked in Community Centre in Łódź when he conducted a series of meetings with the great artists (Wojciech Jerzy Has, Juliusz Machulski) called Film mojego życia (Film of my life).

Batko also wrote screenplay for several episodes of the series Zaczarowany ołówek (Enchanted Pencil) and screenplay for the animated movie Siedmiomilowe trampki (Seven-league sneakeres) based ona his novel W poszukiwaniu straconego trampka (In Search of Lost Sneakers).

In 1990, at age 50 he started working as a translator. His translation of William Styron Sophie's Choice has received good reviews from critics and literary theorists. In interviews, has admitted that his main rule is: Never read the book before you translate it.

Translated by nearly fifty novels - e.g. Steinbeck, Wharton and Twain.

The content
The book tells the adventures of a rabbit and a shy horse, which when feels insecure is able to change coat color. Together they are experiencing various unbelievable adventure.

The novel contains elements of adventure fiction with fantastic elements, but also a satire on contemporary realities and public institutions, e.g. the court, the power of manner. It is also an attempt to show the adult world in a distorting mirror.

Author explicitly warns of identification with the characters and faithful tracking the plot, because they are not the most important in the book. The author says:

'My intention was also to show how worn out some of the styles and conventions. That's why I played with form, having the hope that readers will take part in this game, do not identify too much with the characters. Backward is a mirror showing my reading, but not my experience. But then I do not mind people to take this reading as a sentimental metaphor of childhood.'

The book is unusually rich in references to the various texts of high and low culture. The author refers to them directly or imitate the style. For example:

•	One Thousand and One Nights: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - Instead of Ali Baba – poor woodcutter, there is a the leader of forty thieves named Alice’s Grandma. It is a pun, because ‘ baba ' in Polish is also augmentative from grandmother and ‘Ali’ can be also understood as 'Alice’s'. Alice's Grandma life goal is "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor". Sounds familiar? That's why he shovers main characters with gold, and after five minutes, robs them. After all, they were rich.

•	Grimm Brothers Fairytales – House, which visited the rabbit was previously inhabited by Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Unfortunately, they are fictitious, anachronistic and noxious and that is why got an eviction order and had to leave it.

•	Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince - Penguin arrives at a small star named Rosie (Tereska), where there is a flock of always hungry children and their father.

•	Michael Ende Never ending story- Rabbit is reading a book in the attic, where he is a protagonist himself.

Polish examples:

•	H. Sienkiewicz –Description of the battle is written by the style characteristic to Sienkiewicz’s historical novels

•	K. I. Gałczyński –One episode in his recording and the presence of grotesque humor reminds dramatic miniatures called Teatrzyk Zielona Gęś (The Green Goose Theater)

•	Stanisław Wyspiański Wesele (TheWeeding)- Author instead of quoting: You had, boor, a golden horn writes You had, boor, a golden tooth, when rabbit lost one.

Also, the book's form is not homogeneous. The text is written in prose interweave by comics, without which it is impossible to understand the story. There is also a fragment of drama and poem (Ode to Daucus Carota – to carrot) and comments directly from the author to the reader.

Reception
This book was debut of the author. Critics welcomed it suprisingly warm. One of the Polish newspaper in a review called Batko Polish Alan Alexander Milne and Lewis Carroll in one pearson.

His debut called a literary event of the year. Although, the book remains little known in the wider group because of to the lack of media interest.

Illustrations made Lithuanian artist Stasys Eidrigevicius

Part of the illustrations from the book became the basis for a short film, directed by Daniel Szczechura in 1997 called Dobranocka (Good-night story).

Oko (The Eye)
The second book is kept in the convention of adventure novel. The story begins on a luxury ship Tatuńcio (Daddy), which refers to the story of the Titanic and Witold Gombrowicz’s Trans-Atlantic.

Although the motto is taken from Gombrowicz's, the author argues that it is the only conscious inspiration.

This time we are dealing with a grotesque world of dystopia. Events are illogical and exaggerated characters represent human types:

Felix Kier (Felix Hearts) - a young idealist and a visionary who wants to change the world. The author writes about him: Figure pathologically trivial;

Sonia Amor - naive and innocent girl that is necessary to lead a love story;

Rita Szaterhard - a woman of steel, provokes the most of adventures, his courage and warriorhood eternally shame the male part of characters;

Rudi Wollf- necessary villain;

Latarnik- professional patriot, immigrant, is a reference to Sienkiewicz’s short story Latarnik (Lighthouse keeper) – a model of romantic patriot. In this book causes ship disaster browsing pornographic magazine.

The Marquis de Sadowski- impoverished aristocrat, living in the village Sadówka, after the abolition of serfdom do not have money to conduct experiments that could be described in the book 120 days of Sadówka (not to be confused with Sodom).

The entire novel is more like a cabaret, satire. The criticism contained in the book does not apply to individuals, or times, although it contains a whole lot of all sorts of references to national (but not only) culture, history, and even the latest policy.

It is rather an attempt to say that all ideologies when they are treated too seriously, when trust them blindly without thinking, then you can bring it to an absurd and ridiculousness.

He shows the weaknesses of democracy, ideal regimes, eager patriotism, sentimentality and concept of idyllic countryside.

Like the first book, this also is full of allusions literary jokes and situational language games, for example:

'Nie ma nic lepszego na depresję, niż góry (There is nothing better for depression than the mountains) ''

Those alle structures fulfill different functions. One of them somehow anticipate future events, others are actually the key to read the novel. The reader can focus on fabular level, or to deal with tracing the internal links and rhymes, in which the book abounds.

Reception
There were plans to transform the book into a script for the film, but the project was never realized.

Views on literature
His book plays with conventions and motives. His literature is not created to fulfill useful functions. Was not created to someone teach, disseminate best practice or to answer questions. This pragmatism in literature he considered unpleasant. Zbignie Batko in interviews repeatedly admitted to a fascination with writing Lewis Carroll. It attracted a multiplicity of language games, charades, a multitude of semantic puzzles, parody and persiflage. He believed that Joyce and Nabokov are figuratively illegitimate children of Carroll. He do not assumed strict division into children's and high literature. He was able to assess higher good books for children than works for adults commonly considered as a classics.