Źle się dzieje w państwie… polskim [Something is rotten in the state of… Poland]

In his article, the author considers complaining as the typical feature of Polish cultural life. He compares the recent situation in Polish culture (i.e. complains about displacement of the classic, paper books by the e-books, Internet and other “new media”) with historical data, concerning i.e. the fear of the displacement of the manuscript by spreading all around invention of printing. According to the author, this fears were false because the manuscript played important role in Polish “underground” of the cultural and political life even in the tweentieth century. Then he refers to the current scientific publications, stating that (despite all recent fears) monographs, dissertations and other humane papers are progressively more and more vast. Unfortunately this vast size does not mix with the accurateness of the data which they contain and with the editorial strictness of these publications. For instance, formal requirements of the publication of the thesis before achieving scientific degree precludes candidates from incorporating critical remarks of the fellow scientists in the final publication. This yields a large number of editorial mistakes and inconsistencies in humane publications. The author prefers coherent, substantive publications, which are free from any factual or editorial mistakes – and that`s his advice for Polish humanists