MURTI-BING
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the author was serious or joking; and the subject matter seemed to
be pure fantasy.
The action of the book took place in Europe, more precisely in
Poland, at some time in the near future or even in the present, that
is, in the 'thirties, 'forties or 'fifties. The social group it portrayed
was that of musicians, painters, philosophers, aristocrats and higher–
ranking military officers. The whole book was nothing but a study
of decay: mad, dissonant music; erotic perversion; widespread use
of narcotics; dispossessed thinking; false conversion to Catholicism;
and complex psychopathic personalities. This decadence reigned at
a time when Western civilization was said to be threatened by an
army from the East, a Sino-Mongolian army that dominated all
the territory stretching from the Pacific to the Baltic.
Witkiewicz's heroes are unhappy in that they have no faith and
no sense of meaning in their work. This atmosphere of decay and
senselessness extends throughout the entire country. And at that
moment, a great number of hawkers appear in the cities peddling
Murti-Bing pills. Murti-Bing was a Mongolian philosopher who had
succeeded in producing an organic means of transporting a "philo–
sophy of life." This Murti-Bing "philosophy of life," which con–
stituted the strength of the Sino-Mongolian army, was contained in
pills in an extremely condensed form. A man who used these pills
changed completely. He became serene and happy. The problems
he had struggled with until then suddenly appeared to be super–
ficial and worthless. He smiled indulgently at those who continued
to concern themselves with such problems. Most affected, were all
questions pertaining to unsolvable ontological difficulties. A man
who swallowed Murti-Bing pills became impervious to any meta–
physical concerns. He treated wild excesses of
art,
arising out of an
"insatiety of form," as outmoded stupidities. He no longer con–
sidered the approach of the Sino-Mongolian army as a tragedy for
his own civilization. He lived in the midst of his countrymen like
a healthy individual surrounded by madmen. More and more people
took the Murti-Bing cure, and their resultant calm contrasted sharply
with the nervousness of their environment.
The epilogue, in a few words: the outbreak of the war led to
a meeting of the armies of the West with those of the East. In the
decisive moment, just before the great battle, the leader of the Wcst-
