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Behold the Protong
Szukalski was not only a prolific artist in a number of media but also an original thinker. In Behold!!! The Protong, he posits a theory that all languages derive from a single source, the protong. With selections from over 40,000 illustrations related to Zermatism, the book explores the universal search for humankind's original language.
- GenresArtPhilosophyDesign
Paperback
First published December 10, 2000
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About the author
Stanisław Szukalski
11 books31 followersStanisław Szukalski was a Polish sculptor and painter who became a part of the Chicago Renaissance. In 1930s Poland he enjoyed fame as a nationalist sculptor. He also developed the pseudoscientific-historical theory of Zermatism, positing that all human culture was derived from post-deluge Easter Island and that humankind was locked in an eternal struggle with the Sons of Yeti ("Yetinsyny"), the offspring of Yeti and humans.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 1, 2013
Anyone with an interest in art, art history, sculpture, esoteric sociology, sasquatch, the church of the subgenius, lowbrow art or fringe culture should immediately seek out this book. or if you can't find it, just do a google image search and prepare to be twisted sideways by szukalski's singular vision and craftsmanship.
April 7, 2014
AN ECCENTRIC GENIUS EXPLAINS HOW HALF-YETI HYBRIDS HAVE ENSLAVED MANKIND
In 1934 the government of Poland declared Stanislav Szukalski the country’s ‘Greatest Living Artist.’ It built the Szukalski National Museum in Warsaw to hold his massive sculptures and dramatic, mythological paintings.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they destroyed the museum and all of Szukalski’s sculptures and paintings. He fled to the United States, where no one recognized him as a celebrated hero. He lived in a small apartment in Glendale, California and made a meager income drawing maps for the aerospace industry. He devoted the rest of his life developing his theory of “Zermatism,” which centered on his belief that human beings were under the control of a race of human-yeti hybrids (the result of ‘yeti apes’ raping human women). Szukalski wrote over 10,000 pages about Zermatism and illustrated his argument with 40,000 illustrations.
Szukalski would have remained in total obscurity if he hadn’t been discovered by a few popular underground cartoonists: Robert Williams, Rick Griffin, and Jim Woodring – who recognized Szukalski’s immense artistic talent, and befriended him. (I interviewed Woodring about his friendship with the incredibly arrogant yet charming Szukalski on my Boing Boing podcast, Gweek. You can listen to it here.)
Several years ago I had the opportunity to see the entire Zermatism archives firsthand. They are bound in massive books and are in the possession of comic book art collector Glenn Bray. It was a stunning sight. Behold!!! The Protong represents less than 1% of the total Zermatism oeuvre, but it’s enough to give you a feel for the depth of breadth of Szukalski’s lifelong obssession. — Mark Frauenfelder
Sample excerpt:
Being a professional man in numerous fields of intellectual activities, I have evolved a different attitude towards them than the layman, who keeps on repeating the same phraseology and terminology, thus sustaining the same, common attitude. Frankly, I am talented in many fields because my interests are numerous, so that I understand to a higher degree how they are interrelated.
Thus, when I say about myself that I am a genius, it is not self-praise, but a statement to describe a type of mindset: whatever it does in any field, it does well. A mind that peruses in many fields will comprehend better, and many things more, than one that is absorbed in only one. It becomes a universal mind.
*
Due to our ignorance of our bastardly past, our inbreeding with the apes, we carried the Burden of History, which actually is the struggle between Humans and a-Humans. The a-Humans, however, because they are born in our own countries and communicate in our languages, are not recognized and are taken to be Poles in Poland, Englishmen in England, Russians in Russia.
The gigantic abdomen that gorillas have to keep on feeding all day was inherited by their bastardly descendents, which physical trait was sublimated into avarice for everything in sight.
Behold!!! The Protong
by Stanislav Szukalski
Last Gasp
2000, 96 pages, 10.8 x 12.1 x 0.3
$21 Buy a copy on Amazon
In 1934 the government of Poland declared Stanislav Szukalski the country’s ‘Greatest Living Artist.’ It built the Szukalski National Museum in Warsaw to hold his massive sculptures and dramatic, mythological paintings.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they destroyed the museum and all of Szukalski’s sculptures and paintings. He fled to the United States, where no one recognized him as a celebrated hero. He lived in a small apartment in Glendale, California and made a meager income drawing maps for the aerospace industry. He devoted the rest of his life developing his theory of “Zermatism,” which centered on his belief that human beings were under the control of a race of human-yeti hybrids (the result of ‘yeti apes’ raping human women). Szukalski wrote over 10,000 pages about Zermatism and illustrated his argument with 40,000 illustrations.
Szukalski would have remained in total obscurity if he hadn’t been discovered by a few popular underground cartoonists: Robert Williams, Rick Griffin, and Jim Woodring – who recognized Szukalski’s immense artistic talent, and befriended him. (I interviewed Woodring about his friendship with the incredibly arrogant yet charming Szukalski on my Boing Boing podcast, Gweek. You can listen to it here.)
Several years ago I had the opportunity to see the entire Zermatism archives firsthand. They are bound in massive books and are in the possession of comic book art collector Glenn Bray. It was a stunning sight. Behold!!! The Protong represents less than 1% of the total Zermatism oeuvre, but it’s enough to give you a feel for the depth of breadth of Szukalski’s lifelong obssession. — Mark Frauenfelder
Sample excerpt:
Being a professional man in numerous fields of intellectual activities, I have evolved a different attitude towards them than the layman, who keeps on repeating the same phraseology and terminology, thus sustaining the same, common attitude. Frankly, I am talented in many fields because my interests are numerous, so that I understand to a higher degree how they are interrelated.
Thus, when I say about myself that I am a genius, it is not self-praise, but a statement to describe a type of mindset: whatever it does in any field, it does well. A mind that peruses in many fields will comprehend better, and many things more, than one that is absorbed in only one. It becomes a universal mind.
*
Due to our ignorance of our bastardly past, our inbreeding with the apes, we carried the Burden of History, which actually is the struggle between Humans and a-Humans. The a-Humans, however, because they are born in our own countries and communicate in our languages, are not recognized and are taken to be Poles in Poland, Englishmen in England, Russians in Russia.
The gigantic abdomen that gorillas have to keep on feeding all day was inherited by their bastardly descendents, which physical trait was sublimated into avarice for everything in sight.
Behold!!! The Protong
by Stanislav Szukalski
Last Gasp
2000, 96 pages, 10.8 x 12.1 x 0.3
$21 Buy a copy on Amazon
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October 3, 2020Oceni gwiazdkami się tego nie da. Jak to u Szukalskiego-jego sztuka zawsze łączy się z masą megaszurskich rzeczy w które święcie wierzył a czytelnikowi pozostaje śledzić jego kolejne odloty-
Unratable As typical for Szukalski his art tepresent his Ultra-thick tinfoil hat befliefs
Unratable As typical for Szukalski his art tepresent his Ultra-thick tinfoil hat befliefs
November 13, 2020
The mad yet coherent ramblings of a forgotten sculptor, trying to make sense of the tragedy of WWII. Szukalski spent 40 years of his life creating a pseudoscience which will be forgotten by everyone if it isn't almost entirely forgotten already. I do wonder about the counterfactual: what if WWII had never happened and Stanislaw would've stayed in Poland? Would he be a world-renowned sculptor? Perhaps not, but he would certainly be more well known. It is unfortunate that a man with so much obvious talent fell into the hole of his new "science" of Zermatism when his artwork was so clearly extraordinary.
Odd and offensive, but filled with beautiful drawings and sculptures for anyone who cares to flip through it.
Odd and offensive, but filled with beautiful drawings and sculptures for anyone who cares to flip through it.
February 28, 2021
Beautiful works and unique insights. This is definitely a book to cherish for generations.
January 29, 2020
The fourth edition of Behold!!! The Protong.
Szukalski was definitely eccentric, and bitter, but this compilation of his Zermatism “science” is intriguing and humorous, and there is no questioning his predilection for sculpture, doodling or passionate enquiry.
A way out theory that becomes more entertaining the more absurd it gets, believer or no.
Szukalski was definitely eccentric, and bitter, but this compilation of his Zermatism “science” is intriguing and humorous, and there is no questioning his predilection for sculpture, doodling or passionate enquiry.
A way out theory that becomes more entertaining the more absurd it gets, believer or no.
October 12, 2007
more to come...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews