Slavka Liptáková is a project & Community Manager at BISLA, screenwriter and dramaturge, literary author. She has been interviewed by BISLA student Natália Dikošová.
What is your relationship with literature?
I have both a personal and a professional relationship with literature: professional in the sense that I am a trained screenwriter and dramaturg, and a literary author; personal in the sense that I am a lifelong reader.
How often do you read books?
Every day. For me, reading is an absolutely normal evening routine. In fact, when someone asks me about my interests and hobbies, it does not even occur to me to mention reading literature. I consider it to be such an integral part of my life that I do not think of it as a hobby at all.
With what intention do you read books? Does reading have a special meaning for you?
The intentions can vary. I like reading just for pleasure. I will lie down in bed, open a book and relax. For me it is a way to spend free time and also a pleasant activity. But most of the time I have some topic in my mind and I read books that are related to this topic. These books can be very different. Recently, when I looked around and noticed what kinds of books I was reading in parallel, and they were extremely diverse. If someone else were to look at them, I don’t think it would make sense to them, mostly because the authors often contradict each other. But for me, as I say, the important thing is the topic I have in mind.
So do you think you could be identified from your book collection?
Yes, it would be an interesting survey: gather the books, leave an empty space in the middle, and try to guess what person reads such a selection of literature.
I agree. Do you have a favourite book?
I do not know if I have a single favourite book, but I definitely have favourite authors. I have one beloved author, in the field of fiction. An important author for me is Lyudmila Ulitskya. She is a Russian author who started writing quite late, after the age of forty. She originally studied biochemistry and genetics, if I’m not mistaken. I have read quite a lot of her work, but I can’t say I’ve read everything. I started with her novella Sonya and then moved on to her bigger novels. What interests me in her writing is her ability to weave, through intimate stories, a broad social canvas – a tapestry of different eras within a certain society, specifically Russian society, since she is a Russian author.
And how did you come across this author?
I’m not sure. I don’t know if I just picked up a book of hers by chance or if someone gave it to me. After that, I started seeking out her work intentionally. The same thing happened with Jón Kalman Stefánsson, the Icelandic author. I read one of his novels, and then I systematically tried to read everything of his that’s been translated here.
My next question is – do you have a book that you return to repeatedly?
There is one author I return to constantly – the French author Annick de Souzenelle. I kept her book The Symbolism of the Human Body by my side for several years, and very often I would just open it and read a random passage. It always delighted me. It was also a relief for me to enter her world, because I see it as my world too. At this moment, it’s not as intense – I’ve put it back on the shelf – but for a long time we lived side by side.
Recently, I went back to the short stories of the Czech author Jan Balabán, who won a literary experts’ poll in Respekt magazine for the best prose of the last quarter century. He was my favourite in the 1990s, but suddenly I realised that the prose had aged. It’s still beautifully written – poetic, sensitive and deep, with very sharp observations – but the atmosphere is oppressively heavy. I didn’t want to step back into it. I finished it, but the excitement I felt thirty years ago just wasn’t there this time. I put it down and felt relieved to let it rest in the library for a while again.
Do you have books you turn to for answers in difficult life situations?
I must admit I’m even a bit superstitious – in the sense that I let myself be guided by chance. Sometimes I’ll just open any book to a random page and see where my eyes fall. But yes, for example, I have looked for answers in Annick de Souzenelle’s work – or, in a way, consulted with her in spirit. I mean that I was interested in how she would see things.