Q&A Andrzej Sapkowsi
While a lot of fantasy can be quite black and white in terms of good versus evil, I think [Witcher protagonist] Geralt exists in a world of shades of grey. I’m curious whether this sort of complexity was a result of growing up in post-war communist Poland? I suspect you want me now to colourfully describe my miserable existence behind the barbed wire of the communist regime, in the drab realit of a centrally planned economy. Forget it. Not applicable. I shall not elaborate. So back to your question, which answers itself. Why do I write as I do? Because I want to be different than, quote, a lot of fantasy, unquote.
You are the Cross Media Author of the Day, but you have spoken of your unease with the experience of your books being adapted into video games. Can you expand on that? Is it something of a hindrance that people might come to your books through the games? I have nothing against the game series “The Witcher”, nor against people who produced it. I have nothing against the games as a whole. I have nothing against the gamers. But the appearance of the game “The Witcher” brought some confusion and somewhat harmed me, harmed my books. Too many readers—mostly very young ones—assumed the game was first, and
Sapkowski’s series has been adapted into video game The Witcher above. Tie-in merchandise followed below, but the writer is unhappy that some of his publishers have used imagery from the game to promote his books
Books shall never be interactive, because the day it happens books will simply not be books anymore. The concept ‘interactive books’ shall be put into the same category as ‘non-alcoholic beer’
original, and I was just an imitator. Some publishers did me a disservice by using artwork borrowed from the game for covers, and by puting game advertisements and game-related blurbs inside. Some readers looked at the covers and rejected my books as game novelisa- tions, products secondary to the game. As something that is not original—and in the SFF field, the words “not original” are a death sentence.
Your books have also been made into films, TV shows, graphic novels. How involved do you like to be with those projects? I would like to be not involved at all. First, such involvement is time-consuming, and
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I value my time highly. Second, I consider adaptors fully independent creators and my involvement may mean interfering, infring- ing their creator’s rights. And last—but not least, I think—my work is the top achieve- ment, which means adaptations cannot be its equal, they can only spoil it. Should I collaborate with spoilers?
And what are your views of the interactive nature of storytelling in The Witcher games? Is it at odds with literature? Games are ipso facto at odds with literature, because games are games and books are books and, to paraphrase Kipling, never the twain shall meet. Books shall never be interactive, because the day it happens books will simply not be books anymore. The concept “interactive books” shall be put into the same category as “non-alcoholic beer” or “military intelligence”. But these “interactive somethings”—I abhor the idea—
shall come, and soon, to satisfy the huge market of slow readers and slow thinkers. And make a huge amount of money. It is simply economic.
A publisher recently said to me that SFF fans mostly care about the world-building in the genre’s books. Would you agree with that, or are plot, characters, etc, just as important? The fans of SFF cannot be defined or catego- rised—you may describe them as a prover- bial many-headed beast. They are as differ- entiated as their tastes and preferences. Some love the plot, some love action, some want some cherchez la femme thing. Some find characters most important. Some require absolute novelt, some love their beloved clichés. And, yes, some want world- building and complex ontology. You surely cannot satisfy all. Because they are different. Such is the nature of the beast, and that’s the beaut of it. ×
16th March 2017
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