The Man from Mars
I wrote Czlowiek z Marsa (The Man from Mars) with
the sole intention of earning money. This novel appeared in a dime-magazine
published in Katowice. The first Polish edition, a pirate one, appeared
in one of the fanzines. Regardless of my own current opinion of this work
this novella obviously became a certain literary fact. Regretfully, the
author sometimes cannot withdraw what has been written and published. Due
to the nature of some 
contracts
with publishers who obtained rights to all my works I was unable to stop
certain foreign publications. After Czlowiek z Marsa appeared in
Germany I came to the conclusion that although this novella is poor and
naive - I should give permission for a Polish edition as well. Nevertheless
authors sometimes wish to hide and bury their beginnings at the "Cemetery
of General Non-reading".
The Astronauts
Today I am of the opinion that my first science-fiction novels
lack any value (despite the fact that I gained world acclaim through their
numerous editions). I wrote them - this was the case with Astronauci
(The Astronauts) published in 1951 - driven by motives that I still understand
today, however the world presented in them radically differs from all experiences
of my life.
Everything is so smooth and balanced; among the heroes we have
a positive Russian character and a sweet Chinese; naiveté is present on
all pages of this book. The hope that in the year 2000 the world would
be wonderful is indeed very childish.... As a very young man to a certain
extent I must have resembled
a sponge that sucked in postulates proposed by socialism. I was concentrated
on making the world more and more positive. In a certain sense I fooled
myself, since my feelings and hopes were genuine. Today I am a bit disgusted
by this book.
The Magellan Nebula
I consider Oblok Magellana to be a rather poor work especially
because of its language. I still can recall that I used to carry a notebook
in which I scribbled down "beautiful expressions" I just invented. At that
time I was under a strong influence of the German poet Rilke, hence my
style was remotely related to this poet's. In addition the plot was way
too "sweet" - so in the end The Magellan Nebula was an extract of
the times of socialist realism. There are people who say one cannot criticize
this book so much, since it is a fairy-tale utopia. So maybe my current
evaluation is biased - because of bad experiences with socialist realism.
