Sikö y Denee

Xayide. When did you decide to write fantasy?

Sapkowski. Long, long, long time ago, in 1985 in winter.

X. So it’s a precise time?

S. Yes because a magazine devoted to science fiction and fantasy announce a competition for a short story. Lets say, short story is thirty pages of the united script, which was terrible for me because I write normally longer love letters. To keep something on thirty pages, for me was practically impossible but I managed. And I decided to write fantasy because I was absolutely sure, I was a hundred percent sure that no body will write fantasy. Because, in my opinion, poly science fiction still on the level of lame, always traveling to another planets and bringing communism to another planet. Of course, it’s completely stupid.

As a marketing man, witch was my profession then, I failed completely because everybody wrote fantasy. But mine was the best. And that’s why I received the third price. Because it was, of course, a conspiracy, they decided that fantasy cannot have first price and the second price. It is reserved for good science fiction. Of course, every fan knew that there was a conspiracy. That the first price, that science fiction story, was stupid and bad written. And the second place was stupid and bad written. And the third one was the best.

If it was really democratic on the first convention after of the PolCon was the biggest one until today. It’s still the biggest Polish convention, it is the most important, were the fans decide for this so call Zajdel price. It was no Zajdel price then it was only PolCon price. But the funs thought, and of course I was… I had no competitors. No. So it was my first Zajdel price without statuette.

Because right now I have five Zajdel price, no one in Poland can claim more, and including this one without statuette I have six. That is the answer the question. I suppose more than you were waited.

X. It is different from what I expected. What does fantasy mean to you in like a sort sentence?

S. Well sort sentence, no… It reminds me the steady phone calls, in the old times when they knew my number, was the phone calls for Polish magazines and television… “Please, Mr. Sapkowski, tell us what do you think about love, war, women, children and the life as a whole? But please in one sentence and very quick because….

X. Ok, so…

S. To answer your question I think about fantasy the same as about love, war and the life as a whole, in one sentence.

X. So we’ll skip that one. With what character race or fantasy animal would you identify yourself?

S. None, it’s idiotic to identify yourself with the letters, black letters on a paper. It is completely idiotic and I suppose the guy, who identify itself with what you ask me before it’s qualify for a long, long stay in the mental institution.

X. So… What do you create first the story or the world in which it takes place?

S. Neither, nor, the person the hero.

X. The character?

S. Yes, the character and to be more precise the name of the character. The name of his profession because in Polish is a neology speech. I invented the word, which normally it does not exist.

X. So… Focusing on the world, what is your process to create it?

S. Creating the world? I don’t know I never created one, never. I do not expire to such an important task. I do not think I have created anything that will remotely resemble a world, because it’s just a scene, painted background, nothing more. It is not Tolkien like, something witch requires a great, really great benediction work to ontologically, to create something ontologically witch has all global. I’ve never done this. For me it is only background nothing more.

X. Do you know the end of the story when you start to write, or it just comes to you?

S. No, always, I am not a writer that starts writing and says “well some how, some how I’ll finished some how.” I know from the first moment. Like the joke, it comes a lady to the doctor, I must know: why the lady comes to the doctor, what’s should we ask the doctor. For example, when she goes to the doctor and she has a big screw in her back. And the doctor says what is your problem. “I been screwed”.

Luis G. Prado. That is a very bad joke.

S.Yes, I know worst. But is only an example that I’m writing just like in a joke. Because the difference is really very slit. You are telling a story. You are telling a story and start with the lady coming to the doctor. Then you make an intriguing, because the intrigue is the doctor asked, the lady answers. Then you have the culmination and ending. If you start to write and you don’t know how, which way you reach the culmination. How do you do it? And how you finished it? Why bother? Start writing memoirs or a blog in internet. It’s no beginning no end. A dream of writer, modern writer, or a Dadaist.

X. So, how do you create your characters? Do they suddenly come to your mind?

S. Very carefully.

X. So you have a level of in-process for them?

S. Yes, it’s very, very important. You can imagine if you have the, of course, picturesque imagination. You can imagine like a circus tent. A circus tent, imagine a circus tent. Do you see a circus tent? It looks like a peach for me. There are not two similar imaginations. What are the circumstances? A big pole standing in the middle of it that is the main character of the story. But if you hang a tent on this pale, that tent will slip down like a … well. You know what I mean. So you need the robs and the small pecks putting on the grown, second characters. Second gilt characters, but everyone of them is important. If one is lost, the story is fucked. The story is fucked! So it is really important.

X. So have you had a character stood against you and say to you not this way? You know like you have program what you want to do with it and it says no.

S. I will gladly answer your question with a simple yes. But then it is not always like this. It happens the characters starts to live their own lives. It happens. It’s very good. Why not? Why not? If they don’t destroy the whole story from inside, It’s good. But it happens.

X. Do you feel like in every one of your characters there is a little bit of yourself.

S. Absolutely not. Of course, if you exclude the strain of the luggage that they carry with myself. The cultural luggage what I create in life what I seen in life. What I experience in life, so it’s, of course, the great truth. It’s something that always seeps into the character. You cannot do it any other way. But if you ask me if the main character or the other fixtures, are me in to some extend, are not. But, of course, they are mine because no one will create them such way as I did. No one. It’s only possible only for me. But they are not me in any way. You cannot tell that I like black hair women or I like gambling. No, no, no, nothing. You will not find me in my books, my person.

X. We will like to… What is the reason behind the change in structure between the two books and the rest of the other written saga?

S. I don’t think I understand. You mean changing the structure in the course of the saga?

Luis. Because in Spain, you know, we publish the six books so far with the two sort story books as part of the saga.

S. I tend to forget. I tend to forget. This is true. It’s true. You know, the first books which are normally called the first two parts of the saga. That’s a collection of sort stories, which I publish them as books I made them appear as novels. It is in our jargon, fix up. So I made fix ups out of the stories. That is why they seem like a novel, but they only seem like a novel. And of course, everybody when through them very thoroughly, and knows the whole picture, they will notice that this… the structure is not a novel. It’s not like a novel, which must be very smooth. So what is really a big novel in five installments, starts with the “Blood of elves” and ends with “The lady of the lake.” Then it’s a coherent story. Those I make them deliberately because they are the first big saga in the Polish fantasy, which I promise the Polish fans. Everybody laugh at me, and I told them I will make you a cult saga. They laugh, sure it was impossible then. It was absolutely impossible. They stop laughing.

X. Was the writing Geralt de Rivia born from the traditional Polish folk tale of the Wavell’s dragon. Has it been your mentor for this story or their any others?

S. Well, it was a fairy tale that it was the bases of Hexer business. But I suppose this story exist in every mythology. About the poor shoe maker coming to the tower where some monster is now making a life of the people not so easy. And the kings ruling the fairy tale kingdom says: Well who will kill this monster will get half of my daughter and all of my kingdom, or the other way around. And then, of course, the poor shoe maker kills the monster and gets half of the girl. It’s true, it’s about… As a specialist in the business, because please consider me a specialist in the fantasy business. I’m a specialist. The fantasy is a fairy tale but it’s told seriously, seriously, very seriously. So it’s no way of half of the princess. Because half of the princess or a stupid kingdom, or something like this, or a shoe maker, this is a fairy tale elements, nothing to do with good fantasy. In good fantasy everything is serious. Shoe makers make shoes, and period. The monsters are killed by professionals. Im a professional writer not a monster killer. Provided you don’t think your own imagination as a monster if so I will gladly kill it by the next opportunity.

X. So, who are the authors, fantasy or any other genre that have influenced you the most during your career as a writer.

S. Wow… A lot of them. A lot of them. Of course I will never confess to be a ‘epigono’ [follower] of someone or to do something like someone but I cannot deny the influence. I cannot deny the influence of Roger Zelazny, Jack Vance, Ursula K. Leguin. I suppose a lot of them. I told you Im a specialist so what was good in fantasy what was remotely good in fantasy I know it. I know it very well maybe helps me when I’m on this you know violent river in my canoe so I can find my way between these stones which normally lead the young writers to disaster. They love some authors too much, and it shows. I suppose I’m not doing this but maybe some very very clever fans will find something that shows very clearly the influence of Roger Zelazny undeniable. Maybe. I of course, would never confess.

So right now I´m a finalist of the David Gemmell award. In a week or something, the award will be given. Of course I have zero chances. It’s impossible that I get this award. The basis of the award is that it is given to the guys that write fantasy like David Gemmell. Well, shit! I’m writing fantasy like Andrzej Sapkwoski!

X. Do you think that introducing traditional folk tales in fantasy affects credibility, or in the other hand it enriches it?

S. No. It was not so that popular in fantasy and I’m proud to be one of the precursors of these methods. Because normally fantasy as you can recall there were these epic stories about the king who lost his reign and wants to regain it, or some simpleton who wants to have the power (Percival), and then the guy who on the first page kills a hundred of orcs, on the second page kills two hundred of orcs, (Conan). So quite typical things. But there is a thing called retelling. It’s the retelling of a story. From the times immortal, only retelling of king Arthur story. Oh, “The mysts of Avalon”, very good book by the way…

But the retellings of the “Sleeping beauty” stories… very few. It was the “Beauty” of Sheri S. Tepper. You remember the anthologies, Ruby slippers, “Hundred tears”. Most written by ladies. But I don’t think they were before me. I suppose they are after me. Im one of the first who started to retell these simple stories like the “Mermaid” of Andersen, like “Sleeping beauty”, like “Cinderella”…

X. Next question is: What do you think is the ideal recipe to achieve credibility in fantasy?

S. Yeah, of course. It is very easy. What do you need is a talent and you must read one thousand five hundred good fantasy titles.

X. And then be very serious?

S. Serious as death. But the talent is, you know… sine qua non.

X. Before beginning your career as a writer, did you go to any literary workshop?

S. No, I do not believe in such workshops. Because you might opinion the writer is an alone wolf. You must do everything by yourself. Nobody would help him. A lot of people would, of course, disturb him. But no workshop will make the writer out of the person who can’t be writer, to the reasons I numbered before. No talent, no erudithity, maybe one thing. The most devastating malady of the young writers is “I’ve done something but I’m ashamed to show”. It’s of course stupid. If you are done something and it’s good you must show it. And if these workshops or groups can help it to overcome this stupid fear, because the fear is stupid, and the fear is defining the guy or the girl, if you are afraid or if you are ashamed of your own creation you are an ashole , not a writer.

X. How many times was your work rejected before being at first published?

S. Never. It never happened. Yes, of course I’m lying, there was a case, the chief editor in the “Fantastica”, which is the polish magazine devoted to science-fiction and fantasy, received my short story, which was called “Tandara day”, from the German medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide. It was a horror story, because I tried to do with horror what I couldn’t do with fantasy. The chief editor, a very famous character in the polish fandom, great translator, great drinker, said “do you know what? I will behave like an American editor. The story is good but I reject it, because I feel that if you improve it will be a big deal”. And I improved the story… and sold it elsewhere. Because I was insulted. He never got the story.

X. What book are you reading now?

S. Now? Theses days? Yesterday, my translation. But my last book in fantasy and science fiction is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, very good. Gaiman… is a shit [pause] I hate competitors [laughs] One of my good acquaintances in Poland, a very sympathetic girl. Once we met in some convention in the hotel during breakfast. So after the third beer, because we always had beer at breakfast, she told me “You know, I’m translating Gaiman”. I said “What?”. “Stardust”. “OK, but why not Neverwhere?”. “Neverwhere comes next”. “Very good”. She said to me “You know what. Write the foreword to it. I will translate it”. She is very good translator. And we make the polish science-fiction business kneel before us. So with Neverwhere, with my foreword, we made polish science fiction business kneel before us. And then Gaiman came to Poland and, of course, who was not invited? You know who was not invited. But then American Gods was a huge success in Poland, but due to what we had done as a start. Things go like this.

X. Next question was: which book would you recommend? Would you recommend this one?

S. Yes, for sure. Everything Gaiman wrote is good: Coraline, American Gods… I like tremendously China Mieville with the Perdido Street Station. Very good, really very good. Of course, the classics, but I won’t say anything about them. Everybody knows about the classics, and I’m an specialist in the field, so you cannot suspect that I don’t know any, I know everyone of them. But I would, let’s talk about the new guys or new girls. I like very much Naomi Novik, even though the series is not finished yet, she is promising. My great laugh which is really, really big, was Roger Zelazny who brought the beauty of the Phrase into science-fiction.

X. Can you tell us anything about your next projects?

S. No

X. Are they secret?

S. No, no secret. I haven’t invented it yet. My new book is finished, it lies with my publisher in Poland and it will be published in september. That is already finished, I’ve forgotten about it, for me the work it’s done. It will come out in Poland in September, so maybe if Faraldo finishes “The Lady of the Lake”…

Ok. So if you … if you can read czech, russian, german. They will be, of course, much earlier.

X. How long do you think …?

S. I don’t know about russian, because there is a problem. That nobody is about?? the war in Afghanistan. The russians, they can say that I’m intruding. Of course I’m not, but they can say. They can say that it’s a holy ground, normally forbidden for the people from outside the center. But if they tell me something like this I will remind them that once, when they published a list of the best science-fiction and fantasy writers from abroad I couldn’t find myself on the list, but I looked, just for fun, at the list of the best russian writers and I found myself there. So I’m not intruding in the field.

X. So, our last question. Can you give us some advice to us, crazy writers that want to go the Fantasy way?

S. My only advice will be learn how to revert seas. It’s more profitable.

X. I surely will not be here for the profit. There must be something else.

S. No, no. Business is business. You must earn your money with what you do. If you repair the DVDs it’s better.

Gornon. Any questions?

X. Have you read “The Name of the Wind”? By Patrick Rothfuss.

S. No.

Káralan. It’s a very good book.

S. It’s new for me, really. But of course I will try, thank you for the advice.

Lady Dragón. Mr. Sapkowski. Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure and I’ll give you a present because of your time. Really, thank you very much.

Sapkowski. Thank you very much, thank you very much, I’m speechless again. Really, you overestimate me, you make me speechless. Thank you very much.

*****

Credits:

- Transcription: Ana, Xayide, Pasiflora, Tuk-zu y Foe.

- Translation: Gloria Torres Daudén.

- Correction and edition: Inés Arias de Reyna.

- Photography: Antonio J. Sierra.

To read the interview in spanish, follow the next link: Entrevista a Sapkowski.

Entradas relaccionadas:

1. Entrevista a Sapkowski
2. “Geralt de Rivia”: una aproximación a la saga de Andrzej Sapkowski
3. Seleccionados para Fabricantes de Sueños 2009
4. Andrezj Sapkowski en la Feria del Libro de Madrid
5. Fallo Premios Locus 2009