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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 rated a book it was amazing

The Ugly Laws of the Beautiful Game: Ten Ways the Beautiful Game Is Not So Beautiful After All

by Bernard Seal

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Stefan Szczelkun said: " This an apparently simple book but it has a profound kick. The author writes in an accessible conversational style and anyone at all interested in getting more out of watching or playing football will quickly find themselves engrossed.

Perhaps a book This an apparently simple book but it has a profound kick. The author writes in an accessible conversational style and anyone at all interested in getting more out of watching or playing football will quickly find themselves engrossed.

Perhaps a book on a games rules might appear a bit austere for the general fan? I promise you will soon be won over to engaging with Bernard’s arguments that football could be so much more enjoyable with a few bold tweaks to its fusty old rule book… We tend to just accept the global laws of football as if they were brought down from a mountain inscribed in stone in ancient times. The author has an acute sense of justice and sportsmanship, but more importantly a sense that football owes its multitude of fans a better experience.

As the author points out the book is written to include those like me who don’t know much about the sport in that he explains each rule before pointing out is limitations. To fans who know the rules he challenges them to think critically.

Bernard argues that a much improved game can be achieved with a few simple improvements to it laws. The red card drives the author crazy. Why should a game be ruined because of the impetuous action of one player? Bernard claims he turns the TV off if the red card is pulled out! There clearly are better options and the suggestions made here are eye-opening and persuasive.

There are old-fashioned values reflected in footballs arcane ‘laws’ that need to be re-examined in a modern light. The games is watched by millions around the world and yet is being unnecessarily clobbered by a set of laws with their roots in Victorian values. Audiences will often pay a huge portion of their income to watch matches - they deserve better. A rational updating would make the game flow better and be to everyones benefit - players and fans.

The book is eloquently written and beautifully illustrated with drawings and anecdotes of actual games.

The world can be improved by attention to the basic rules we play by. It takes a brilliant mind like Bernard Seal’s to see how we might be putting up with unnecessary impediments to our enjoyment. ...more "

Sep 29, 2026 01:35PM · see review

Stefan Szczelkun is currently reading

Out-Spoken Press Vulgar Errors Feral Subjects.

by Fran Lock

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Aug 19, 2026 12:22PM

Stefan Szczelkun is currently reading

Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion

by Gareth Stedman Jones

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Jun 20, 2026 08:33AM

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Stefan Szczelkun liked Bill Smoot's review of Bridging the Divide: Working-Class Culture in a Middle-Class Society: "Though our country has been doing better about trying to understand our troubling racial divide, we often ignore (or misunderstand) our class divide--in particular, the divide between middle class and working class. Rich in personal story, statistica" Read more of this review »
Oct 23, 2026 03:15PM · see review
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Paradise (The Divine Comedy, #3) by Dante Alighieri	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
Oct 17, 2026 02:23PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Paradise by Dante Alighieri. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Paradise by Dante Alighieri <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Stefan Szczelkun and 47 other people liked Brent Cope's review of Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes: "This book holds information in it that every man, woman, and child on this planet needs to understand; 4-6% of our worlds population are born without conscience. This fundamental deficit in a minority of the population allows our global tragedy to co" Read more of this review »
Oct 17, 2026 02:18PM · see review
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes by Andrew M. Lobaczewski	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 rated a book it was amazing The Ugly Laws of the Beautiful Game: Ten Ways the Beautiful Game Is Not So Beautiful After All by Bernard Seal	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
This an apparently simple book but it has a profound kick. The author writes in an accessible conversational style and anyone at all interested in getting more out of watching or playing football will quickly find themselves engrossed. Perhaps a book ...more
Sep 29, 2026 01:35PM · like · see review
Stefan Szczelkun is now following Elinor Ostrom Author of Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institu...
Sep 28, 2026 04:14AM · like
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions) by Elinor Ostrom	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 and 72 other people liked Adam Wescott's review of Viriconium (Viriconium, #1-4): "How much you enjoy Viriconium will most likely depend on why you read fantasy. Actually, scratch that: how much you enjoy Viriconium relies on what you expect out of your reading, period. If you see books as comfort food, you are probably going to hat" Read more of this review »
Sep 23, 2026 10:28AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Viriconium by M. John Harrison. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Viriconium by M. John Harrison <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Stefan Szczelkun wants to read Viriconium (Viriconium, #1-4) by M. John Harrison	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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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

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

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