I've decided to post this here, but if a moderator decides it would fit better into the General Discussion forum, feel free to move it there.
So I've been thinking about the Polaks lately. I heard a wonderfull quote the other day:
"The psychological landscape of the Polish is peopled with martyrs."
And it's right, actually. There's a lot of sadness among the Polish collective 'spirit': they've been the sucka's in international politics for two centuries, and it left it's mark. You can actually see it when you go to Poland: Polish landscape is not a happy landscape. Well, I've only seen the Western Polish plains, but there was still a strange kind of sadness over it... These are the lands that in about two hundred years went from Polish to Austrian hands, from Austrian to Russian hands, from Russian to Polish hands, from Polish to German hands, from German to Soviet-Russian hands and, in the end, into Polish hands again. It left its mark: it's had to express with words, but you almost *see* the sadness there.
And in the Polish psyche, a bit of that sadness lives on too. One can already see that in their religious practices (see "Pope dies" thread), but it's also a general truth: most Polish graphic artists, writers, directors or musicians of the last two century, for instance, make 'sad' art. I can't think of any 'happy happy' Polish books, movies or whatever, anyway.
So I wondered - might that be why there is such a large Polish element in the Fallout community? Might it be that the inherent sadness and martyrdom in the Polish psyche draw them to the sadness and martyrdom in the Fallout games? That the destruction and human madness in the Fallout games seems almost 'recogniseable to them': they are the people who suffered so much under German occupation in WWII, and under the Soviets later: they know, in a way, what human madness can lead to.
Discuss.
So I've been thinking about the Polaks lately. I heard a wonderfull quote the other day:
"The psychological landscape of the Polish is peopled with martyrs."
And it's right, actually. There's a lot of sadness among the Polish collective 'spirit': they've been the sucka's in international politics for two centuries, and it left it's mark. You can actually see it when you go to Poland: Polish landscape is not a happy landscape. Well, I've only seen the Western Polish plains, but there was still a strange kind of sadness over it... These are the lands that in about two hundred years went from Polish to Austrian hands, from Austrian to Russian hands, from Russian to Polish hands, from Polish to German hands, from German to Soviet-Russian hands and, in the end, into Polish hands again. It left its mark: it's had to express with words, but you almost *see* the sadness there.
And in the Polish psyche, a bit of that sadness lives on too. One can already see that in their religious practices (see "Pope dies" thread), but it's also a general truth: most Polish graphic artists, writers, directors or musicians of the last two century, for instance, make 'sad' art. I can't think of any 'happy happy' Polish books, movies or whatever, anyway.
So I wondered - might that be why there is such a large Polish element in the Fallout community? Might it be that the inherent sadness and martyrdom in the Polish psyche draw them to the sadness and martyrdom in the Fallout games? That the destruction and human madness in the Fallout games seems almost 'recogniseable to them': they are the people who suffered so much under German occupation in WWII, and under the Soviets later: they know, in a way, what human madness can lead to.
Discuss.
