In the years 1967-1981 they were published in
"Literary life", after that in Pismo",
"Odra" and just since a few years in"Gazeta
Wyborcza". These are paragraphs - reviews for the various
books: cookery-books, calendars, hunting-vocabulary,
"Warsow's Romantic Ballet 1802-1866", "The trip of
continents", One hundred years of dedectives - history and
adventures of crime-detection" etc. The reading of
"Optional readings" proves that every book will be
read.
hese pieces have hardly been explored in literary press. While
reading „Optional readings”, the reader can learn as much
about the described book as about Szymborska herself. With her
typical wit and lase, she brings the readers close to
publications, which, at the first sight, could hardly be called
interesting. She has a lot of living for cetain authors of
memories, such as Tolstoj and his „Diares”, Kasprowicz with
his „In our mountain challet”. She also goes to judge the
pride of others, for instance Chaplin’s „Autobiography”. In
her feuilletons on translations, she mentions numerous anecgdotes
concerning the various writers lives (H. Ch. Andersen -
„Fairy-tales”), or she indulges in reflecious on an
author’s life events, which contributed to the birth of a book
(M. de Montaigne „Endevours”) . Szymborska emphasised, in a
very witty way, the exageration of biographies of national heroes
(„Garibaldi”). She talks of difficult struggle for truth (M.
Beniowski „The Diaries”). She ecourages the reader to verify
the wrong popular opinions (M. Kosman „ The Quenn Bona”). She
points at the importance of a little incident in the great
history. She often puts together the chearfulness and easy
approach to life of j.Haszek and seriousness and tendency to die
of a literary cristic. Besides the thorough judgement of books,
Szymborska includes in her pharagraphs thoughts about a great
variety of issues. She writes, for instance, about the lives of
fairy-tales „in the world we all share, since people still
don’t wish to live this way. (Popular fairy-role in ancient
Poland). She refers to the natural equipment of animals there are
instincts they have but people don’t. (Droscher „Instinct or
experience”).Szymborska also writes about "love to trees
and fruit bushes" (Sz.Pieniazek "Gdy zakwitna
jablonie")
This volume of paragraphs is mainly light-hearted, witty.