Josef Formánek

Josef Formánek

Josef Formánek (born June 16, 1969 in Ústí nad Labem ) is a Czech writer, journalist and globetrotter.

Life

He attended the technical secondary school in Roudnice nad Labem . In 1992 he founded the geography magazine Koktejl together with Miroslav Urbánek . He was editor-in-chief there for almost thirteen years and in the course of this activity traveled to over thirty countries around the world, with the Indonesian island of Siberut in particular inspiring him.

He also helped found the magazines Ocean , Everest , Phönix , Cleopatra , The Bride, and the children's magazine The Realm of Miracles . He also initiated the implementation of the requalification course "Editor of a magazine", which took place directly in the editorial offices of Koktejl magazine and on which several well-known photographers, globetrotters and authors worked. Today Formánek devotes himself exclusively to writing. So far he has written six books. Formánek is the father of daughters Karolin and Nina, whom he would like to take with him to the island of Siberut one day to show you the wisdom of the locals and the mysterious magic of the jungle.

The author and the island of Siberut

Josef Formánek visited Siberut four times. In 1997 and 2000 he was on this island, which is located in the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra , for about half a year. He continued his journey there as part of a humanitarian mission after the tsunami in December 2004 . He made the last trip there in 2013. The author is fascinated by the so-called “ primitive peoples ” and he now feels the island of Siberut as his second home. He described the experiences there and the encounters with the members of the Mentawai tribe in the travelogues of his first work and the penultimate work "The Son of the Wind and the Busty Man" (Syn Větru a Prsatý muž). Before leaving, he taught himself the basics of the Mentawaian language with the help of a dictionary "German-Mentawaian" written by missionaries. For the first time he visited Siberut with two friends for two months. For the second time he spent 3 months on the island with a student who studied Indonesian at Charles University . During this trip Formánek collected various artifacts for an exhibition. He had a ritual Mentawaian tattoo applied to his upper body, which with the help of geometric patterns represents the giver of life - the sun and the jungle. For more than ten years he has been wearing shamanic coral rings in red and green, which are supposed to protect against evil spirits.

In the autumn of 2002, he exhibited various artifacts and photographs in the National Museum in an exhibition called "Siberut - the eyes of ghosts". This exhibition was part of the “The Secrets of Indonesia” campaign organized by Josef Formánek together with Jiří Hanzelka , Miroslav Zikmund , Rudolf Švaříček and Miloslav Stingl . Further exhibitions of his exhibits were organized in Prachatice and Karlovy Vary . After the tsunami in Indonesia on December 26, 2004, he realized a project called “We are not alone” as part of an initiative by the gallery owner Hruška, with which he wanted to support the victims of the flood disaster. Sixty-six ceramic heads by Czech artists were painted and auctioned. Josef Formánek took part in a mission of the Czech Red Cross as a volunteer and brought the aforementioned aid material to Aceh on Sumatra and the island of Siberut. During this two-month trip, he underwent a shamanic initiation ritual on Siberut. Formánek tried to counteract the work of missionaries in not yet civilized jungle areas. In 1995 he wrote an open letter to Pope John Paul II , in return he was granted an interview with the Prague nuncio Giovanni Coppa . During this conversation, however, Formánek did not understand his cause.

The work

The stage of the writer Formánek was preceded by the stage of the globetrotter. Discovering and recognizing, the very things he knew from the books of famous world travelers and which he loved to read in his youth, became an inspiration for him. From the countless travel experiences, the desire grew to exchange what was newly experienced, regardless of whether this was done in the context of a report or a book. He wrote six books that were published by Smart Press sro and Gekko Distribution. He worked for seven years on his first work "The Busty Man and the Thief of Stories". It was published in 2003 and became the most successful debut novel of the decade - more than 72,000 copies have been sold to date. The twelfth edition (June 2013) and an audio book, which will be read by Jiří Štěpníček, an actor of the National Theater, have already been published due to the great number of readers. The second book, "The Flying Jaguar" (Létající Jaguár), was published in 2004. It was created in record time. The writer made a bet with his editor, Ivan Železný, that he would write a novel in twelve hours (in the end, he could do it in even less time - 11 hours and 19 minutes). The publisher issued it after another twelve hours. The proceeds from the first edition were then dedicated to the newly opened pavilion of the elephant enclosure at Prague ZOO. Formánek's third book, “Speaking the Truth” (Mluviti Pravdu), was published in 2008. 34,000 copies have been sold so far. Hollywood screenwriter Mitch Markowitz is currently writing a script based on this template. The fourth book “I died on Saturday” (Umřel jsem v Sobotu), on which he worked for two years, was published in 2011. The penultimate book so far, “The Son of the Wind and the Busty Man” premiered in 2013. The last book, “The Smile of Sad Men” (Úsměvy Smutných Mužů) was published in 2014. All works combine autobiography and complexity processed stories and a formal structure in numerous chapters and sub-chapters, illustrations by the draftsman Dalibor Nesnídal and the main theme - the search for the meaning of life.

bibliography

• The Busty Man and the Thief of Stories - a travel novel with autobiographical roots, 2003
• The Flying Jaguar - a novel written in record time after the subjects were chosen by lot in 2004
• Speaking the Truth - a brutal novel about the love of life. Based on real life, 2008
• I died on Saturday - A house. A builder. The eye of God and a sentence. A house where strange things happened. How does God choose? What Happens After Death ?, 2011
• The Son of the Wind and the Busty Man - a tale of a change so great that man cannot even imagine it. About the shaman test and an unexpected gift - non-gift from the jungle, 2013.
• Sad Men's Smiles - When You're At The Bottom You Must Push Yourself From The Bottom, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BBCCzech .
2. ↑ Josef Formánek "Říkali mi Si Lap Lap" . February 7, 2005.
3. ↑ Česká televize: Uvolněte se, prosím .