Writer Andrzej Sapkowski talks to Witold Żygulski about his fantasy
              literature-and its connections to the real world.

       - You  are a trader by education and profession.  How did you go from
  there to the top of the bestseller lists of Polish fantasy novels?

       - The  more I look back,  the stronger is my feeling that it was pure
  coincidence.  In  1985,  Fantastyka  monthly,  which was new to the market
  then,  announced a competition for a short story. I decided to submit one.
  I wrote the story, but for over a year I had no idea what was happening to
  it.  I  didn't  know  anyone  from  Fantastyka, and I had no contacts with
  literary circles. I was a complete outsider. And then it turned out that I
  won third place, and the short story was published in December 1986.
       That  wasn't  my  first  attempt  at  writing: I had written and even
  earned  money  at  it  since the mid-1970s. Those were largely stories for
  local newspapers and special-interest magazines. For me, however, that was
  an  extra  job,  and I had no literary ambit ions or plans to link my life
  with writing. So I think my true debut was the Fantastyka competition.


       - So you decided to write more...

       - Not  right away. I could even say I tried hard to resist it.  I was
  accustomed  to  the  fact  that  writing  a  story  for  an  editor didn't
  necessarily  mean  that  I  would get another assignment. I had never felt
  attached  to  one editor or a group of readers. So I was sur-prised by the
  reactions  of  fantasy-literature  fans. It was as if the readers suddenly
  started  to perceive me as their property, and at some point it started to
  resemble a kind of cult. I didn't see that as my role, so I threw away all
  invitations  to  fantasy conventions. In the end they managed to get me to
  one  of  them,  and  now I'm glad they did. Few writers have the chance to
  talk  regularly  with  their  readers-but  here,  that kind of meeting has
  become  an  institution.  I've  come  to realize you can find a fantasy or
  science  fiction  fan  club  in  almost  every  large  city in Poland; and
  discussions with those people can be very creative.
       The  readers  wrote  me that they would like to see a series of books
  with  the  same hero. Fantastyka editors got me looking through my drawers
  for  material. I didn't have anything special, but I dusted off some ideas
  and  quite  hastily  managed  to put together a short story-which was also
  very  well received. I didn't even notice when I began to write one or two
  stories  a  year.  That  didn't interfere with my work. Writing in my free
  time or over the weekend, I felt happy.


       - So in the end, you gave up business to become a full-time writer?

       - I  didn't  leave  business, it was rather business leaving me.  For
  over  20  years, I worked in foreign trade, an interesting field. It was a
  good  job  because  it  gave  advantages  that work in other fields didn't
  provide;  for  instance,  you  could travel more freely and see the world.
  From my frequent trips abroad, I usually brought back books.
       However,  times  have changed, and my company suffered as a result. I
  changed sectors and employers several times, and then the last of my firms
  collapsed. By then, I was financially secure, so I didn't have to look for
  a  new  job,  but-and I was a prepared for a slight drop in my standard of
  living-I could live off writing. That was around 1994.

  
       - Why fantasy?

       - It  was  born  of  my own literary fascinations.  I started to read
  science  fiction  during  Stanisław Lem's golden years, a brilliant period
  when a lot of world science fiction literature was translated into Polish.
  After  1956,  such  periodicals  as  "Przekrój" weekly or "Dookoła Świata"
  popularized   the   genre.   They   published  excellent  translations  of
  science-fiction   and   horror  short  stories  and  novels.  What's  more
  important,  these  were  living authors-not just the genre's classics. The
  first  science-fiction  story I ever read was Harry Harrison's Rock Diver.
  By  the  way, I recently met Harrison at a meeting of SF fans in the Czech
  Republic.
       Fantasy,  if  it  existed  at  all, wasn't very popular. I don't even
  think the term was used. So it remained beyond my literary interests-until
  the  moment  when  I read J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". Even
  after  reading  that  book,  I  still had no idea there were other authors
  writing  in  a  similar  way.  That  came much later, when I began to read
  Ursula  LeGuin's and Roger Zelazny's works. I was highly impressed, if not
  by fantasy, then by the very interesting stories I found in those books.


       - How would you define fantasy?

       - Science fiction breaks the rules of probability, but it can do that
  only  with  some rules. Some elements of "science" have to remain, whether
  it  be technology or, for example, psychology. In fantasy, all appearances
  of  probability  are  rejected, and this is not concealed from the reader.
  After  all, it's hard to persuade a late-20th-century person that dragons,
  elves, gnomes or sorcerers live somewhere in the world.
       Writers  of  fantasy  usually  create their own imagined worlds whose
  existence  they don't attempt to justify. Sometimes they suggest it may be
  our  own  world,  but  long,  long  ago,  or the opposite-somewhere in the
  distant  future.  They try to convince readers that our world will one day
  cease  to  be  based  on  technology and logic, that it will turn into one
  filled  with  magic.  They  make  up explanations, saying that dragons are
  mutants,  and  magic  involves a new form of currently existing phenomena,
  like, for example, telepathy or psychokinesis.
       Finally,  fantasy  novels  often feature a journey, a group of people
  traveling  toward  some  goal. In English, these are called quests. I have
  always  thought  this motif descends directly from the legend of the quest
  for the Holy Grail.
       Perhaps  there is no other literary genre that polarizes audiences to
  such  a  degree.  Some  readers  love  fantasy;  others  regard it as pure
  nonsense,  unfit  for  reading.  In bookstores, some customers immediately
  reach for their wallets at the sight of a book cover featuring a dragon or
  a  sorcerer, while others wouldn't go near it. That has nothing to do with
  the writer's skill or the plot's originality.


       - Reviewers and readers seek in your world of  fantasy references and
  allusions  to  the  real  world, including Polish history and contemporary
  times. Do these stem from any journalistic or critical ambitions?

       - Like any legend, fantasy is based on morality;  it speaks about the
  fight  between  good  and  evil,  but in a special way. It's impossible to
  avoid  some  analogies,  and  I  cannot restrain myself from engaging in a
  creative game. And the readers should be equally pleased when they realize
  they've   come   across  something  familiar,  some  well-known  quote  or
  situation.   Something   from  literature,  or  maybe  history,  including
  contemporary  times.  One  reader  wants  a  story  about dragons, another
  prefers   a   morality  tale,  and  still  another  expects  postmodernist
  references.  But I don't attempt to caricature people or situations-that I
  never do.


       - However, you touch on subjects like racism,  violence, the judicial
  system,  environmental  dangers, and even abortion. The reader might begin
  to wonder to what extent you are committed to those problems.

       - In  one  volume  of  my  witchers'  saga,  I  depicted  a situation
  resembling the Sept. 17, 1939 events, when the Soviet Army hit Poland just
  as it had been attacked [two weeks earlier] by Hitler. My intention was to
  show  that  meanness  has always existed, so it must exist in the imagined
  world  as  well. The problems I write about are important to me, sometimes
  they relate directly to my experience. But I don't try to teach the reader
  what's good and bad. My books are not a pulpit or a speaker's rostrum, not
  even a soapbox in Hyde Park on which I could stand and spread truth in the
  world.  I  describe  stories  and  events that are familiar to us. Let the
  reader  ponder  what  my characters say and whether they're right. Writers
  really  shouldn't  treat  the  reader  like  an  idiot  who needs sermons.
  Morality  is  created  when certain actions end in a positive way; evil is
  punished  and  good  triumphs.  Focusing on structure in my novels is more
  interesting  to  me  than  putting  opinions unrelated to the plot into my
  characters' mouths.
       Many stories I have created lie far from my personal views. Sometimes
  I'm  openly  ironic  when  in  my  books  I pretend to be the supporter or
  opponent  of  something. I would be amused if someone tried to imagine me,
  based  on  what  I  write. An author's image doesn't have to coincide with
  their fiction. I totally agree with the opinion that only bad books reveal
  something about the author-good books focus on the protagonists.


       - Economic  motifs  in your fantasy books are rather  unique for this
  type  of literature. Have you introduced them because of your professional
  experience?

       - Sometimes  I certainly like to show off  my knowledge in that area.
  But  first  of  all,  I  want  to  organize  my  fictional world in a very
  believable  way, so I can't escape from money because it rules everything.
  As  in real life, an imagined fantasy world must also have trade exchanges
  in  all its stages: money flow, capital accumulation, banks, usury, and so
  on.  It  seems  to  me  both an amusing and moralizing technique. And I've
  always  boasted  that  the reader can check everything on a calculator and
  see that all calculations are correct.


       - Your  language  is  full of neologisms,  it refers to many cultural
  phenomena,  and  not  only from Slavic culture. How many languages can you
  speak?

       - That  is,  in  how many do I dream?  I think that you really know a
  language  only  when  you're able to have dreams in it. And I can dream in
  Russian, English, German and Italian. But if you mean communicating on the
  street,  watching  TV  or  reading  newspapers,  then  I  know  many  more
  languages.


       - Despite  the  readers' and fans' protests,  you have announced that
  the  fifth  volume  of  your saga, to come out late this year, will be the
  last one. What are you planning after that?

       - I  would  like  to  go back to shorter literary forms.  I have many
  ideas  in  my files, but because of the series' terrible annual production
  cycle,  I  have  no  time to work on them and write. The short stories I'm
  planning  are  not  "sword  and  sorcery"  type  of fantasy, although that
  doesn't  mean  dragons or witches won't appear in them. I am also thinking
  about writing a historical novel, maybe with elements of fantasy, but that
  will  happen  in  some  five years. Before that, of course, I will have to
  make sure that my name in the fantasy world is not forgotten.