Bruno Schulz’s The Street of Crocodiles has taken over my inner world for the last few days. The book is mostly beyond my description, at least right now. It consists of thirteen stories from the point of view of a small boy in a small Galician town, focusing on the fantastical world created by his father — or created by himself in attempting to describe or, perhaps, explain his father.

I’ve never read Schulz before, but I’ve heard the name, I think. It’s kind of been around on the periphery. He’s probably more famous now for his biography, particularly his death, than his writing. This from Wikipedia:

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, as a Jew he was forced to live in the ghetto of Drohobycz, but he was temporarily protected by Felix Landau, a Gestapo officer who admired his drawings. During the last weeks of his life, Schulz painted a mural in Landau’s home in Drohobycz, in the style with which he is identified. Shortly after completing the work, Schulz was bringing home a loaf of bread when he was shot and killed by a German officer, Karl Günther, a rival of his protector (Landau had killed Günther’s “personal Jew,” a dentist). Over the years his mural was covered with paint and forgotten.

Anyway, I heard a day or two ago that he also had a book of erotica out there, devoted to the subject of the voluntary humiliation of men before women. And, of course, I went into a frenzy trying to track down images. The best single source I found is here. I can’t read most of it, but all of the images on this page are tagged “The Booke of idolatry”.

My favorite: