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212 ratings | 139 reviews | avg rating:4.60

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Stefan Szczelkun

Goodreads Author

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

Website

https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL3811005A/Stef...

Twitter

szczels

Genre

Art, Contemporary, Philosophy

Influences

Deborah Levy, Jurgen Habermas, Marcel Proust,

Member Since

July 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/szczels

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Last three books:

'Can Working Class Culture be Knowledge' 2024 ISBN 9781870736558

'Dementia Painting' April 2023.

'Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1999: culture and democracy' was published in 2021 - a short version of my PhD dissertation at RCA.

'SiLENCE! the great silencing of British working class culture' plus related photoboooks on UK Plotlands and other stuff. See Openlibrary link for full list of books.

Most of my books are available as ebooks or PDFs. If you contact me I will send you a review copy.

Whilst having my year out from my architecture course in 1969 I came across The Scratch Orchestra and although not a musician I joined with glee and experienced the power of collective improvisation. This did result in a publication, but much later. Last three books:

'Can Working Class Culture be Knowledge' 2024 ISBN 9781870736558

'Dementia Painting' April 2023.

'Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1999: culture and democracy' was published in 2021 - a short version of my PhD dissertation at RCA.

'SiLENCE! the great silencing of British working class culture' plus related photoboooks on UK Plotlands and other stuff. See Openlibrary link for full list of books.

Most of my books are available as ebooks or PDFs. If you contact me I will send you a review copy.

Whilst having my year out from my architecture course in 1969 I came across The Scratch Orchestra and although not a musician I joined with glee and experienced the power of collective improvisation. This did result in a publication, but much later. By 1971 I was back at college in Portsmouth attempting to finish my course whilst living in a van. Architecture did not seem to be located in human needs… So I decided to take John Cages’ advice and ‘start from scratch’. Before architecture came shelter so I started collecting stuff on basic forms of shelter making. That turned into collecting scrapbooks of material on our basic life supports - shelter, food and energy. It was a revelation to me because I was finding my own categories and structuring knowledge for myself rather than following existing classifications.

I had the good luck to take my collection into Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton at an opportune time. The poet proprietor of Unicorn, Bill Butler, could see the potential for a British version of The Whole Earth Catalogue. The first completely hand-drawn ‘Survival Scrapbook 1 Shelter’ came out early in 1972. ‘Survival Scrapbook 2 Food’ came out later that year and ‘Energy’ in 1974. They sold well and the rights were sold to Schocken in NY. I was sent on a 37 radio and TV talk show tour of America and they sold by the thousand.

The next thing I got into was a concept of ’Total Ability’ where the idea of ‘going back to first principles’, which my school physics teacher used to bang on about, was applied to human functioning. It started when I came across a page-long description of standing in a classic book on Yoga. What if I collected things like that on all our human abilities… creating a sort of self-knowledge through doing. Anyway that project was bought by a big publisher called Wildwood House. But then they went bust and as the Seventies progressed the bottom fell out of the hippie alternative market as things got less visionary. So ‘Sense -Think - Act’ got put on the shelf until Gordon Joly turned up and offered to publish it as a Wiki on his own backyard server. From there it was finally made into a self-published paperback book.

But to return back to the Eighties… By then I felt a need to explore who I was. And I still hankered after the peer collectivity I’d experienced in the Scratch Orchestra. First of all I decided that I should follow my inner mojo and be an artist rather than a half-hearted professional architect. Help for my confused state of being came in the form of a class conscious form of co-counselling. Through this I came to realise I was still as working class as my family, in spite of my pretensions to be an author and artist! I joined a newly formed Brixton Artists Collective with other working class artists and started running radical and inclusive exhibitions in three railway arches. It was a breath of fresh air compared with the stuffy art world.

The next thing was I realised was that I was still Polish. In spite of losing the language and being second generation I was still an immigrant with attitude. Two practical actions came out of this almost simultaneously.

The first was meeting a Polish artist in Lincolnshire, through the mail art network, (Leszek Dabrowski) and realising I could do with being part of a Polish artists group. Then I met Kasia Januszko living in my squatted street in Kennington and with her help the project took practical shape. The group, cal ...more

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Stefan Szczelkun’s books

Average rating: 4.58 · 38 ratings · 27 reviews · 24 distinct works

	Dementia Painting by Stefan Szczelkun (Goodreads Author), Joan Colnbrook (Illustrator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	SILENCE! The Great Silencing of British Working Class Culture 4.57 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Conspiracy of Good Taste: William Morris, Cecil Sharp, Clough Williams-Ellis and the repression of working class culture in the 20th century 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1993 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Improvisation Rites: from John Cage's 'Song Books' to the Scratch Orchestra's 'Nature Study Notes'. Collective practices 2011 - 2017 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Plotlands of Shepperton: Photographs 2004 - 2016 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chalet Fields of the Gower by Stefan Szczelkun (Goodreads Author), Short Owen 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Survival Scrapbook #1: Shelter 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sense Think Act 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Collaborations really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1987 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Class Myths and Culture really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1990	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Stefan Szczelkun's Blog

On Drawing - a contemplation on the drawings collected by Hugo A. Bernatzik

Drawing as Universal Language, Springer 2015

A book presenting the drawings collected by Hugo A. Bernatzik (1897 - 1953) in South East Asia in the Nineteen Thirties.

The main part of this large format book is a selection of reproductions from the 500 sheets collected, in which the photographer asked people he came across on his travels around S.E. Asia to spontaneously draw on a sheet of pa

Stefan is Currently Reading

Stefan Szczelkun is currently reading

Out-Spoken Press Vulgar Errors Feral Subjects.

by Fran Lock

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Aug 19, 2026 12:22PM

Stefan Szczelkun is currently reading

Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion

by Gareth Stedman Jones

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jun 20, 2026 08:33AM

Stefan Szczelkun is currently reading

Culture Matters Co-operative Ltd Spectres Defectors No Respecters.

by Fran Lock

bookshelves: currently-reading, class, history, working-class-writer

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Stefan Szczelkun said: " I'm reading this one poem/page a day to savour them.
The person who gave this two stars is being irresponsible. Fran Lock is one of our leading poets and intellectuals; but the poems are strong and sometimes the raw truth of them is hard of the stomac ...more "

Feb 17, 2026 05:16AM · see review

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Stefan’s Recent Updates

Stefan Szczelkun wrote a new blog post ‘Art & Class: how the middle classes hijacked the nations art galleries’ by David Kennedy ‘Art & Class: how the middle classes hijacked the nations art galleries’ my review of David Kennedy's book. National Gallery UK This book is a bit o Read more of this blog post »
Sep 04, 2026 05:04AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun rated a book it was amazing Zeichnung als universelle Sprache. Werke aus Südostasien und Melanesien. / Drawing as Universal Language. Graphic Works of Southeast-Asia and ... ... and English Edition) (Edition Transfer) by Doris & Christian Reder Byer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A book presenting the drawings collected by Hugo A. Bernatzik (1897 - 1953) in South East Asia in the Nineteen Thirties. draft review... A selection from the 500 sheets collected in which the photographer asked people he came across on his travels aro ...more
Sep 02, 2026 09:57AM · like · see review
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images by W J T Mitchell (2006-11-03) by Unknown Author	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 01, 2026 06:29AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Oppositional Discourses and Democracies (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought) by Michael Huspek	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 30, 2026 10:14AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Second Nature Urban Agriculture: Designing Productive Cities by Katrin Bohn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 29, 2026 06:17AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun is now following Mikey Tomkins Author of Urban Food Mapping: Making Visible the Edible City
Aug 29, 2026 06:15AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Urban Food Mapping: Making Visible the Edible City by Katrin Bohn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 29, 2026 06:15AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun is now following Kae Tempest Author of On Connection
Aug 28, 2026 03:30AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun and 33 other people liked SJ's review of Having Spent Life Seeking: "One of those earth shattering, mind altering and once in a blue moon books. The experience is somewhat like reading Euphoria in the hands of a poet with lived experience. I’ve said it many times but I’ll say it again, Kae Tempest is a stone cold geni" Read more of this review »
Aug 28, 2026 03:28AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Stefan Szczelkun liked Paul's review of Indignity: A Life Reimagined: "After the success of her first book, a photograph of Lea Ypi's grandmother appeared online, deriding her bourgeois appearance. A photo that Lea Ypi had never seen. Trawling through archives she recreates her grandmother's life and times, from the tai" Read more of this review »
Aug 28, 2026 03:25AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Indignity by Lea Ypi. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Indignity by Lea Ypi <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Stefan Szczelkun (?)

“Real life is pockmarked and frail and deeply satisfying. The media image of life is sanitised and glossy and dissappointing.”
― Stefan Szczelkun, Class Myths and Culture

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“The radical implication of the expansion of higher education has been disguised by a myth which dubs all educated working class people as middle class. By definition working class people are not intelligent, so if you've got a degree you must be middle class. This nonsense is reinforced by the fact that acedemic traditions are laden with class assumptions and are presented in upper class styles even in the Polytechnics.”
― Stefan Szczelkun, Class Myths and Culture

tags: class, education, oppression, perception, prejudice

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“It is a supremacist assumption that one culture can be compared as better or worse than another.”
― Stefan Szczelkun, Class Myths and Culture

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Stefan’s Quotes

“In a word, a concert hall is a place where middle-class white people can feel safe together.”
― Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening

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“The reverence accorded to the composer’s score suggests that it is a sacred object, which is not to be tampered with, whose authority over the actions of all the musicians playing here tonight is absolute, which commands absolute stillness and silence from those devotees who have assembled to hear it performed.”
― Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening

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“The corps of Great Composers who provided the works that are played here are all dead; living musicians may have their works played here from time to time, as a kind of courtesy, but it is the dead who command the loyalty of audiences, and it is their works that are played here over and over again with loving note-for-note accuracy.”
― Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening

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“The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.”
― bell hooks

217 likes

“Head in the book. Nose sliding down the valley between the pages.”
― Roddy Doyle, A Star Called Henry

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