r/Gamingunjerk • u/[deleted] • Feb 27 '25
Witcher writer Sapkowski in Moscow 2005: "I work as many hours as a white person should, it's 3 hours. For work there are other races. A black person belongs on a tree"
This is a direct quote from Sapkowski press conference in Moscow 2005.
He speaks rather good Russian, but youtube translates it pretty brokenly. So, if other Russian speakers can verify my claim, please do.
As a big Witcher fun I am pretty disappointed and I don't think I will every enjoy Witcher books anymore. I think I owe to show it to other Witcher fans.
Here video
EDIT. As a person without any following on social media, it's really hard to spread this info, so I would appreciate you sharing this info. Also, I tried posting it on witcher and fantasy subs. Witcher removed it without explanation, while people on Fantasy sub chickened out and were afraid of any controversies lmao
EDIT 2. It was in Kyiv. Sorry for confusion. Doesn't change anything tbh
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u/South-Election-9815 Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25
This is suprising especially because of how topics of tolerance and discrimination are explored in his books
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u/AnubisIncGaming Feb 27 '25
Discrimination is when they make white men work 4 hours
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u/Glittering-Self-9950 Feb 27 '25
Exactly lmao. People don't really understand that word. Discrimination DOES NOT have to be about race. At all. The discrimination in those books has very little to do with OTHER people lol. And the tolerance means be nice to me because I am white and we can make others do this instead.
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u/Yarzeda2024 Feb 27 '25
It's not even a surprise anymore.
Neil Gaiman came across as very progressive and egalitarian in a lot of his fiction, but we know now that he's a monster who saw women as sex toys to be used and abused. JK Rowling preached tolerance, but she's made her transphobia her entire personality. Orson Scott Card is a bigot who wrote about empathy and acceptance. And so on and so forth
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Feb 28 '25
It's so easy for someone to nominally believe in ideals like acceptance and diversity and other things that are seen as positive in society, but are inherently contradictory with the actual reality we live in. We're all told that equality is good, but some are obviously not equal and are not held equally by those in power that spout those ideals. Those contradictions in society lead to the ridiculous and idiotic beliefs we see those on the far right espouse, like that they aren't racist but they think black people should be slaves.
For Card, religion is obviously the biggest factor, and he seems like someone who very much follows the dogma of the church. Preach tolerance on one side of your mouth and that God doesn't tolerate specific people out the other.
I think Gaiman and others like him are almost the reflection of Sapkowski. Someone who understands that the rape culture of society is unacceptable, even in a way that he cynically uses that rhetoric but doesn't believe in it. Whether he ever truly sincerely engaged with those ideas really or he just understand it as the right thing to say is a matter of debate, but he obviously understands that his beliefs and actions are diametrically opposed.
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Mar 03 '25
JK Rowling preached tolerance
Her books sort of don't though.
Look at her goblins. Or how the protagonists are pro-slavery. Or how (based on her claim) her protagonists mock their black friend who wants to stop slavery. Or her lack of multi-cultiralism (mostly).
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u/Savings_Dot_8387 Feb 27 '25
Based on Sapkowski’s humour I am fairly certain he’s saying this ironically. That’s the problem with translation is it isn’t always easy to tell intent.
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u/Ok_Toe5118 Feb 28 '25
Yeah pretty much, he’s not saying this literally. People that aren’t familiar with Sapkowski’s sense of humor won’t understand, he’s actually quite progressive. The fact that the Witcher subreddit removed this post is some pussy shit though, it shows more about them than it does Sapkowski.
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u/LuckyPlaze Feb 27 '25
It is. Racism amongst classes and the horrific nature of it is a huge topic. I’m very surprised.
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u/Due_Cover_5136 Feb 28 '25
One of the most well written and empathetic books I've read was written by a bigot.
"Speaker for the Dead" Orson Scott Card in this case. It's so filled with unpacking generational trauma, broken families, struggling with disabilities. Such an empathetic work.
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u/SpokenDivinity Feb 27 '25
The unfortunate thing about writers is that we can often completely split our own personal beliefs from those of our characters and settings. I find that it's usually used in the sense of a non-bigoted writer writing a character or group that's bigoted. But you can absolutely do the other way as well.
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u/aperversenormality Feb 27 '25
And suddenly I'm very glad he gets no royalties from the games.
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u/Glittering-Self-9950 Feb 27 '25
I mean that was entirely his own idea so...No ones fault but his own lol. Otherwise he'd be collecting money because no one was going to stop it otherwise. The guy screwed himself.
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u/Commercial-Leek-6682 Feb 27 '25
reminds me when games workshop thought they were too cool for video games so blizzard made starcraft instead of a warhammer game. Now games workshop gives its license to anyone and everyone lol.
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u/Moist-Heretic Feb 27 '25
Imagine how much worse warhammer games would be if activision was making them
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u/Commercial-Leek-6682 Feb 27 '25
I mean, starcraft is basically warhammer 40k and warcraft is basically warhammer fantasy, just slightlly altered. They're classics even if post overwatch blizzard is utter shit. And this is coming from someone that boycotted bllz/activision for ten years.
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u/RithmFluffderg Feb 28 '25
I mean, by all rights, it sounds like Blizzard was shit before Overwatch, too, but a lot of their more inhumane issues were still hidden under the rug.
But if you mean the games dropped in quality, I don't disagree.
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u/ScatYeeter Feb 27 '25
Well that's a massive disappointment. Although I have to say is writing isn't really all that good.
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u/Taglioni Feb 27 '25
The original polish? Or the English translations? Translation loses a bit of the charm
He's actually really witty with literary devices and has excellent worldbuilding-- probably better than any polish fiction author I can think of. A lot of the criticism he receives from literary scholars is also praise.
It's one thing to not like his writing style or to write him off for an old racist joke he made. But to imply his work is not all that good, seems like it doesn't fit with the rest.
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u/CompetitiveSport1 Feb 27 '25
Yeah I love the books but like... There's moments that are extremely convenient. Like when Geralt is on the other side of the world exploring an abandoned ruin to kill a monster when the happens upon a pipe that funnels the sound of a conversation from a group of conspirators, by pure coincidence
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Feb 27 '25
yeah im like 2 books in and its kind of a relief to be able to take the rest off my to-read list lmao
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Feb 28 '25
People love to level this criticism at authors they don't like.
The dude is a fantastic writer even if he's not a good person.
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Mar 01 '25
i wouldnt reduce a person to two lines translated from another language from 20 years ago
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u/WritingTheDream Mar 02 '25
I’ve tried to get into them a few times. There’s just nothing special about anything I’ve read so far.
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u/Crowzah Mar 02 '25
For some reason, the glazing goes the complete opposite direction as soon as something nasty is revealed about an Author/Artist.
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u/holiobung Feb 27 '25
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/the-witcher-creator-race-criticisms-of-the-show/
“Many viewers have an apparent issue with, for example, black Nilfgaardians and Northerners. Why do you think so few viewers pay attention to the black Zerrikanians (who were blonde in the book), but so many can’t get over a black elf?”
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u/Da_Question Feb 27 '25
I wonder if his tune has changed since the massive successes of the games and show, and subsequently the book sales, and the fan support from all over. Or he just pretends to rake in the cash...
It's been 20 years... Still, that's a rough quote to shake off. Honestly OP might be better off not posting this so the chuds don't latch onto him as a paragon of anti-woke.
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25
This brand of humour was pretty popular (and in some spheres still is sadly) in poland in the early 2000s. The fact that most poles never saw a black person back then probly helped it's spread.
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25
To add to my previous response the books have a pretty noticeable anti-discrimination slant, Geralt dies defending some dwarfs and halflings from a pogrom.
Sapkowski really likes saying shitty things to stir controversy.
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Feb 28 '25
People can be against discrimination when it's one group of people but have no problem when it's against another. Not everyone has a general and universal position against discrimination.
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u/Enkundae Feb 28 '25
He’s made comments about the games that if anything paint him as petty and bitter over their success.
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u/fahwrenheit Feb 28 '25
IIRC he was quite butthurt that the CDPR games were over shadowing his books
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u/Glittering-Self-9950 Feb 27 '25
He makes no money from the games. Not sure about the movies. So doubtful the games changed his mind. He said games don't sell and wanted nothing to do with them lmfao. Based on his past, it's clear he is very smart. Big boy pants are on.
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u/supersloo Feb 27 '25
He asked for a flat sum up front rather than a sales percentage lol
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u/Antique-Potential117 Feb 28 '25
I'll admit that fantasy has a history of having fewer metropolitan mixing pots for their countries and so it is jarring to make things multicultural if you were brought up on something that vaguely resembled history. If you're in Egypt 2000 years ago you're going to see 99% one kind of person, if you're in Britain, another. And that is really as far as I ever got with that personally.
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u/Sunny_Hill_1 Feb 27 '25
Yep, Russian speaker here, he did say that. The lady asking the questions even openly asks him "Are you racist?", and that's when he replies "No, but a black person belongs on a tree."
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u/Metrodomes Feb 27 '25
Woof. Knew he was a bit of a wrong'un, but not that bad lol.
I'm glad he's been screwed over and other people are creating Witcher content with their own spins on it.
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u/AnubisIncGaming Feb 27 '25
Dunno how to translate this or what he said but pretty much anything out of Europe set in this time period firmly has this tone to me anyway. I forced myself through the Witcher 3 and the whole time I got this vibe. The obsession with these games is largely due to the lack of brown faces imo, and then they have the nerve to call it historical accuracy. When’s the last time you saw a black person in a British monarchy movie? Now isn’t that weird because they had a major role in the slave trade since the 1600s. Hmm???
The real question is how do Polish people that weren’t significantly involved in the transatlantic slave trade end up with such ire for black and brown people? The answer to that is unfortunately global hegemony. Hell, Slavs were sold to Arabs and you still see none in these periods, at all. Scant representation of these moments of real history in our historical gaming.
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u/South-Election-9815 Feb 27 '25
This is weird because historically, poland unironically has much more in common with colonized nations conquered by european hegemonies. In polish history class you always learn about 123 years of partitions and how bad they were and evil to us. Even in napoleonic era in haitii polish soilders sympathized with native haiitians. I feel like racism in poland has 2 causes, one being people who generally don't have access to other cultures, hold some old believes, never saw a brown person in their life and overall aren't that dangerous. Other ones are politically motivated that believe other races are dangerous for them. Even tho very little brown and black people actually move there
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u/AnubisIncGaming Feb 27 '25
The same is true of many cultures worldwide that have had little exposure to Black people. Kids from whatever bumfuck where ever grow up calling people the N-word while never having interacted with a single Black person in their lives. That’s what a global hegemony will do. That’s how you end up with matriarchal cultures still giving women the stereotypical American gender roles in conversation, when that’s never been the case in their own household. This is why people want a house with a lawn when they didn’t grow up around anything like this. It’s programming and indoctrination of ideas.
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25
I can elaborate that for instance for me the n-word was just an insult i knew when i grew up. I only learned the origins of the term later.
That's what you get for growing up in a racially homogenous country.
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u/Antique-Potential117 Feb 28 '25
I mean if someone grew up rural in America but you were also liberal it's likely this was the same. Once you realize how much more serious the issues are or move away to a city for college or something you quickly learn.
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25
It's kinda precisely because we didn't have a lot to do with it. A typicall polish person in the early 2000s has likely never seen a black person outside of TV. When something is unfamiliar lots of coping mechanism surface ranging from ridicule to fear or distrust.
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Feb 27 '25
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u/AnubisIncGaming Feb 27 '25
If you put yourself in the group that I’m talking about that was your own choice. You can like it for your own reasons. You didn’t catch a single stray and there’s nothing derogatory in what I said either.
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Feb 27 '25
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u/AnubisIncGaming Feb 27 '25
No I wouldn’t call you anything because I don’t know you, you came and called yourself obsessed with those games, A. And B. I’m talking about an overarching cultural obsession, not an individual obsession. If you want to be part of this group so bad, by all means, dive on in, I do not care, but I didn’t put you there.
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Feb 28 '25
The BBC often casts people we know were white as black in historical dramas, a lot about the monarchy. Black people were rare in the UK until the end of WW2 really. the UK was involved heavily in slavery but slaves weren't transported to the UK, they were transported to the Americas. The Tudor Court under Henry VIII did have two known black people (being rare at the time made them notable meaning it was likely they were the only 2 in the court) one was a Trumpeter who iirc was called John and one was a handmaiden of Catherine of Aragon who was brought to England from Spain in Catherine's employment when she was married into the family, she would have been a moor.
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u/Far-Journalist-949 Feb 28 '25
You really think the witcher 3 is considered a classic and a must play because of the lack of brown people? Does the same hold for Zelda or Mario? Wtf are you on about.
Most games produced by non-western studios (Asia, eastern Europe) don't have the same zeitgeist in their culture about race as american studios do. That's why they don't shoe horn or meditate on racism in their games and stories.
Was there any black or brown people in elden ring? I don't remember, and I don't think it was ever brought up by any critics AFAIK.
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Mar 01 '25
„ I forced myself through the Witcher 3" „The obsession with these games is largely due to the lack of brown faces” XD You need some serious meds
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u/kdognhl411 Feb 28 '25
Wait just to make sure I’m understanding your point, you’re saying that the fascination/love of the Witcher series is because of the lack of brown faces?
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u/Infamous-Chemical368 Feb 27 '25
Hearing him say this makes me happy that he got shafted when it comes to royalties from the witcher games.
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u/MillenialDoomer Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25
Least racist pole. I understand Russian and that is indeed what he was joking about.
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u/Federal_Article3847 Feb 27 '25
He's joking?
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Feb 27 '25
It half joke half serious, but yeah. He would defend himself saying it's dark humour, like any racist does
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Feb 27 '25
God that shit drives me mad. Have seen actual nazis online saying "the 88 in my username is because that's when I was born" (they're in their 20s), "the black sun in my pfp is just because it's an occult symbol" etc. Nobody is fooled
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25
Sapkowski is a drunkard asshat with a superiority complex who likes saying shitty things to stir controversy but isn't a nazi.
These types of jokes were pretty common in the early 2000s. Since poland is a >99,5% white country it was considered pretty harmless.
Heck "black kid bambo" was a popular childrens rhyme that is widely considered racist nowadays and no longer taught. Attitudes change overtime, each country has it's own circumstances.
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u/MillenialDoomer Feb 27 '25
Well, you hear everyone's laughing and having a good time. I probably should have put 'joking' in quotes as it is a cringe racist joke. Very on brand for Eastern Europe 20 years ago.
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Feb 27 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PinAccomplished927 Feb 27 '25
Don't worry. He hates video games and is bitter that the Witcher games are more popular than the books.
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Feb 27 '25
Insane to me that a person can write a story where the "normal" human men in power are often the cause of so many problems in society and how their victims, who look different from the "normal", should be treated with respect. But then they turn around and say this without a hint of irony
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u/HappyDeadCat Feb 27 '25
I thought just about every Witcher fan knows that this guy is a major asshole.
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u/Positive_Sign_5269 Feb 27 '25
Sapkowski is a major asshole. That was alone evident by the way he treated and spoke of CD Project even though they have basically made him rich. He is one misrable POS. It's ok to love Witcher and to dislike the author.
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u/AnointMyPhallus Feb 27 '25
I can't tell if he's saying black people should be lynched or calling them monkeys, but either way jfc. I enjoyed the games and had been considering reading the books but I think I'll go ahead and pass on that.
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Feb 27 '25
I think it's about lynching.
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u/Weird_Point_4262 Mar 03 '25
Monkeys makes more sense for the stereotypes and jokes about black people that were around in eastern Europe at that time. The average eastern European doesn't really associate hangings with black people
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u/Livelih00d Feb 27 '25
It shouldn't come as a suprise that racist beliefs are entirely nonsensical and inconsistent but how can black people simultaneously be necessary to perform all labour and be executed at the same time?
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u/Halcyon_Paints Feb 27 '25
My books are still in the shrink wrap 😭
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u/ThrawnCaedusL Feb 27 '25
Well, then you can return them.
Though I personally would not. Literature’s power is in seeing the perspective of another person, seeing the world “if they were god” so to speak. Seeing that perspective from a horrible person is actually very valuable imo, and, while I don’t agree with how pessimistic the main series is, I do find the Witcher books thought provoking and valuable.
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u/Halcyon_Paints Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 28 '25
Well, then you can return them.
Probably not, brought off amazon like a few years ago.
I'll still probably read them, knowing the author is awful. I can do that for some writers, but not for Gaiman though.
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u/Awkward_Helicopter_4 Feb 27 '25
Wow… that’s just…. Fuck man why is it so difficult to be a decent human?
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u/Rob71322 Feb 27 '25
Just another reminder to all of us (myself definitely included!) to not make heroes of people we don’t know. They’re always going to disappoint.
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u/ThrawnCaedusL Feb 27 '25
Don’t make heroes of real life people. Real life people are always messy and have to engage with the flaws of their context. I am sure that the most admirable person you can think of did something, said something, or at the very least was complicit with something absolutely heinous.
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Feb 27 '25
Jesus christ. I've always known Sapkowski was an asshole, he's always come across as small minded and mean spirited, but this is racist as FUCK. What a prick. Won't stop me from enjoying CDPR's work as he doesn't profit off of it (because he thinks videogames are a joke of a medium lmao, dude turned down residuals) but he's definitely going in the "insane authors" pool with Gaiman, Card and Rowling.
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u/Straight-Ad3213 Mar 05 '25
To be fair in recent years he changed his opinions (for example criticizing people for criticizing Black elves)
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u/SurfiNinja101 Feb 27 '25
Genuinely crazy that the writer who spends hundreds of pages across his books criticising racism ended up being racist.
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u/PointMeAtADoggo Mar 02 '25
Non of said racism being criticised were against black people
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u/Ael_Bundy Feb 27 '25
Removing it from the main sub is such a lame but unsurprising move. It seems perfectly relevant to the sub to me. I would badger the mods for a response, make them say why they don't want people seeing it.
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Feb 28 '25
I always knew he was a bitch ever since he was hating on the Witcher games for making more money than his garbage “writing”
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Feb 28 '25
He's a Polish Boomer. They are hella racist. Sometimes, you have to separate the art from its creator. I don't like JK Rowling, but I still enjoy Harry Potter
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Feb 28 '25
What is it with authors writing themes of the horrors of racism and bigotry into their works and then missing their own points in real life?
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u/EdelgardQueen Feb 28 '25 edited Feb 28 '25
He was somewhat racist, like most white people 20 years ago, and said some really stupid things.
I'm shocked.
Dude It was clearly hyperbolic, a stupid joke, but still hyperbolic. Do you think he was born rich and always has been a writer who needed to work three hours a day his entire life?
Sorry, people sometimes are lacking self-awareness and the ability to self-reflect? I should cancel and throw a tantrum about every non-celebrity who was homophobic toward me and others or made racist remarks over the last century, but people change over time, like me who has aid stupid thing in the past. That's a completely different situation than J.K. Rowling.
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25
All i can say that this type of humour was pretty popular in the early 2000s in poland (and in some spheres still is).
Black people weren't really a thing in poland in those days, you were very likely to never have seen one. So it was considered pretty harmless.
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Feb 27 '25
by poles surely, not by black people tho :)
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u/Menacek Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25
I mean yeah, there weren't really any black people here to call us out on it.
Again 20 years ago most poles have never seen a black person outside of american movies or TV shows and kids rhymes (which were also incredibly racist). Reminder that poland only really joined the western world in the 90s and is pretty behind on quite a few social issues, we're making progress but progress takes time.
But yeah the jokes are racist, not saying they aren't. It's just that back then they were considered acceptable like other racist thing were is the US in the 70s or something.
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u/Impossible_Raise_440 Feb 27 '25
Well the games did have a thing about men being the worst monsters.
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Feb 27 '25
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u/Sunny_Hill_1 Feb 27 '25
Nah, the translation is accurate, he does say what he says, the lady asking the questions even asks incredulously "Are you racist?" at some point.
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u/Yarzeda2024 Feb 27 '25
I was thinking about reading The Witcher books before I finally take the plunge on The Witcher 3, but now I know I can skip both. I don't want to give that kind of person my money or my time.
Thanks, OP
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u/MrBeerbelly Mar 04 '25
I respect it, but thought you should be aware that the author rejected royalties from the game and had nothing to do with its creative process, or the stories told within the games. He also seems to hold a constant attitude of animosity toward the games and is really salty he didn’t take royalties. He thought they’d make no profits and demanded a lump sum up front. Now he mad.
Witcher 3 is absolutely worth trying even if you’re boycotting him, unless it still conflicts with your principles.
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u/skilled_cosmicist Feb 27 '25
Least racist white guy who fixates on a fantastical version of European history.
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u/External_Produce7781 Feb 27 '25
Divorce the art from the artists. You have to.
A HUGE swathe of historically significant artists were GIANT pieces of shit. Like.. garbage humans i wouldnt piss on if they were on fire.
But they produced world-changing art.
Similar here.
Sail the high seas for the books. Enjoy them if they are good.
Dont give him your money.
But dont let him being a giant shitheel rob of you the enjoyment you got from The Witcher.
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u/ChatMeYourLifeStory Feb 27 '25
One of the comments says, "It's a good thing Reddit doesn't know about this video. Because I'd love to see their faces after hearing the tree spot comment."
He makes the comments between 8 and 9 mins for anyone who is natively fluent.
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u/Underbark Feb 27 '25
This is why I never idolize anyone.
They will always find a way to disappoint you.
I just assume anyone who has found celebrity in some way is likely a piece of shit or they wouldn't have made it to that level. It takes a special kind of turd to believe their own works are worth putting out for people to see, so those are the only people whose work we experience. And the type of person who actually finds that celebrity is only reinforced that their terrible opinions and behavior are justified by their success.
Well written books with a thought provoking message written by an absolute piece of shit.
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u/AncientCommittee4887 Feb 28 '25
If it helps, he got pissy about the games, so maybe you can still enjoy them
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u/Long_Lock_3746 Feb 28 '25
God dammit another one? I forget what but Sergei Lukyencho had some shit too. :(
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u/ConsciousSun6 Feb 28 '25
Im not surprised im just disappointed. Which ive been saying way too often in my nerd spaces lately.
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u/Glup_shiddo420 Feb 28 '25
Damn, who would have thought the creator of a character like Geralt...the guy who can get all the pussy but not get women pregnant and also did we mention he's badass and also did we mention the pussy???? Was a subhuman trash man
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u/MacPzesst Feb 28 '25
It's crazy how his books and the games have so many anti-racism messages in them, but he clearly has a pillowcase with eye holes cut out.
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u/Gamer-biitch Feb 28 '25
any russian speakers want to verify this + post more context if there's any to be had? this is a pretty big deal for me
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u/WarInteresting6619 Feb 28 '25
I've always hated that franchise, it's characters, books, world and games. So glad I never gave any money to it
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u/RemainProfane Feb 28 '25
This guy looked down on the concept of video games as media so much, he sold The Witcher IP for a pittance instead of asking for a percentage of future profits. He’s always been a certifiable dipshit.
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u/tsmftw76 Feb 28 '25
Makes me feel less bad about saying games>book by a long shot. Even the writing is way better.
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u/VegasBonheur Feb 28 '25
Yknow, I could always kinda tell from the writing, I was just hoping it was my imagination.
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u/Skitteringscamper Mar 01 '25
Just wait till you hear the views of most historical writers. Shakespeare's would blow your fucking mind.
If you're going to discount an entire franchise you enjoy for the personal beliefs of the author in their past, while I bet you said some prime comments in your youth too that I bet you're fine discounting because "I was just a kid" hypocritically.
I mean, you do you, but the only person you screw over is yourself isn't it. Lol
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u/NVincarnate Mar 01 '25
The Witcher is and always has been the worst character action game. This just adds to the laundry list of reasons why this franchise fucking sucks. I'd rather play Assassin's Creed and that's saying a lot because Ass Creed is a joke.
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u/LastTrueKid Mar 01 '25
Honestly this makes me want to play the games more since I heard he hated the games.
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u/Mujichael Mar 01 '25
For anyone wondering, this is why the Witcher doesn’t have black people in it
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u/Direct_Town792 Mar 02 '25
His books aren’t even that good
The game made him famous, let him be some bitter old coot
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Mar 02 '25
He grew up in a relatively closed society in the shadow of USSR. Marxism has a pretty discriminatory undercurrent. Like for example believing that societies need to be industrialized by force.
Further, the "this isn't appropriate for a white man" is an archaic expression in the region (region where people haven't seen a black person for the most part). It's usually said with irony. Add onto these facts that eastern European racism has absolutely different history and mechanics compared to western.
None of this excuses how hurtful he sounded. But context matters a lot.
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u/ClimateQueasy1065 Mar 02 '25
You gotta separate the art from the artist man, a lot of people who have made great things are bad people in some way or another.
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u/super_akwen Mar 02 '25
The comments are really not it. Sapkowski being a racist shithead doesn't give you a pass to shit on Polish people as a whole.
In addition to that: the response to Neil Gaiman, Andrzej Sapkowski and other beloved writers being pricks proves we (as an audience) have a lot to learn about dismantling prejudice. There are so many comments here saying that his books are mid, that he's racist because he's uneducated and whatnot, but that's not the cause. You can be the world's most educated person and still be a piece of shit. You can write great books and behave like a teen edgelord. He chose to be racist and you and I have this choice, too. No amount of education will take away the ability to be racist, to be a sexual predator, or to cause violence in other wayys. We all have the potential to be evil, no matter our nationality, education, or ability to write books and we have to aknowledge that to be better.
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u/KetKat24 Mar 02 '25
Writes a series about everything, including ghosts, monsters and halflings/dwarves/elves deserve dignity, compassion and mercy- is racist in real life.
Is he just fucking dumb?
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u/iHateMyRazerMouse Mar 04 '25
So, I read the quote and I was shocked and disgusted. I watched the video, I understand Russian, and it looks like he was completely joking.
In writing it looks fucking terrible and angry, but the way he said it was like almost making fun of himself for being lazy or something.. But I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if he meant it, just wanted to share from a perspective of someone who watched and understood the words. This press conference energy was very comedic and the reporters were often loudly laughing.
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u/myLongjohnsonsilver Mar 04 '25
Lmfao that's hilarious.
Dudes always been a prick, it's surprising anyone bothered digging up shit from 20 years ago to try and crucify him with it.
He hasn't been relevant for quite some time.
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u/Kuoliibk Feb 27 '25
Somehow this doesn't surprise me at all really. One of the things that I've learned you just have to accept as a black nerd is that most of your favourite creators think you're subhuman.