English

Noun

1. The condition of being insatiable

Insatiability (Polish: Nienasycenie) is the only major novel by the Polish writer, dramatist, philosopher, painter and photographer, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. It was written in 1927 and first published in 1930.

It combines chaotic action with deep philosophical and political discussion and predicts many of the events and political outcomes of the subsequent years, specifically, the invasion of Poland and the subsequent foreign domination and mind control exerted, first by the Germans, and then by the Soviet Union on Polish life and art.

Czesław Miłosz frames the first chapter of his book, The Captive Mind, around a discussion of Insatiability, specifically the "Murti-Bing" pill, which allows artists to contentedly conform to the demands of the equivalent of Socialist Realism.

The novel was translated into English in 1977 by Louis Iribarne.