The Something More of ‘almost nothing’: Miron Białoszewski’s Kairotic Everyday

Abstract

This "something more" challenges the commonsense understanding of what is meant by the everyday, and it may well be the secret of Bialoszewski's popularity as a writer. In this commonsense understanding, the everyday lacks events amid the endless repetition of mundane tasks and activities. When events do happen, they are bracketed as "holidays," which, often nostalgically, are contrasted with the everyday's inertia. The everyday's open-ended, trans­parent flow-its repeatability-is never considered worthy of a story since it is never seen for the first time.