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There is a law, I suppose it should have a name but I don't know it, that the "publish" button turns off some mental block in the writer's head which only then allows proper proofreading to occur. It's as reliable as gravity.

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I think Szymborska was perhaps simply Polish , rather than mean, as in more straightforward than a British writer would have been.So many Poles in the UK have complained to me about being told they were blunt, even rude, when they thought they were being perfectly polite. To be sure, it is not a cultural difference - Poles are not brought up to be less polite, and in some ways, like using honorifics, are more formal - it is purely linguistic.

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