- In the initial version of the novel, I tried to shape Tamnik as a kind of magical-realistic toponym, but in later revisions the realistic atmosphere of that village was intensified at the expense of the magical one. The events in that village structure a micro-plan that corresponds to the wider spatial plan of the story, and it encompasses Belgrade, Amsterdam and Potisje Bačka - this is how the writer Marinko Vorgić in an interview with Art Vijesti, he explains the toponym in his new novel "Empty Graves" (New Book from Podgorica). Vorgić is a poet, prose writer, literary critic, essayist, columnist who has been present on the Montenegrin public scene for decades. He is the author of the novel "Doš ne sviće" which had a good response both in Montenegro and in the region.
- My intention was to problematize in the space of fiction a phenomenon that, it seems to me, is becoming more and more recognizable in the time we live in, a time that was supposed to be a triumph of planning and has become a time in which more and more elements determine our reality, whose systems the values, by the way, are quite shaky. With all the decades-long efforts of ideologues and politicians from the area known as the center of civilization to impose a globalist paradigm - by means of which, as they convinced us, the values of that center would spread to the rest of the world - we have come to a state where it is increasingly clear that this the process takes the opposite direction, i.e. that what characterized the periphery - inequality, mythomania, populism, violence and war - is increasingly becoming a feature of the center. What could be said - the periphery strikes back and what is particularly problematic is that it strikes back very successfully. More precisely, thanks to the long-term hypocritical practice of values that formed the ideological pedestal of that center, an even greater gap was created between the developed and backward parts of the world. In such a state, quite justifiably, doubts about the benevolence of globalist processes grew, so that in the end, doubts would grow more and more into resistance. This hypocrisy awakens a growing number of people in the West to distrust the values in which they firmly believed until recently, and the further articulation of that distrust is often taken over by extremely problematic ideological concepts. The fact that the rationalist paradigm ended in mere pragmatism of the upper class made various irrationalist narratives appear as a comforting, even salutary solution to the disoriented and humiliated individual of today. That is why the reality of our time looks more and more like a reality that seems to be on the threshold of some new enchantment of the world, in an even wider scope than the one that defined Marcel Gauche. Conspiracy theories have a special place in this dangerous process, a phenomenon that is increasingly functional in the reality of the epoch in which we live. In this novel, conspiracy theories are the driving force behind the action, which leads to the fact that even this broader spatial plan begins to resemble the aforementioned village, which represents an autistic outlaw whose life is determined by fear of the world.
Is the theme of terrorism one of the important layers in the novel "Empty Graves"?
- No matter how much you have excluded the possibility of some drastic surprise that the current reality can give you, events happen that force you to revise your order for everything. One such event is certainly the tragedy on the island of Utoja. The motives, the way, the socio-political environment in which the crime took place and above all its perpetrator, who seemed to have jumped right out of some unrealistic fiction or video game, sometimes lead you to doubt the real basis of such an event. In addition, some phenomena in his epilogue, in the context of the reception of that event in our area, also seemed to be dislocated from any standard of normality. Namely, it is about the appearance of relativization and even celebration Breivik's of crimes by a non-negligible number of social network users, after it was found out that, as he himself claimed and wrote in his manifesto, he was inspired by the events of the war in Bosnia. A similar phenomenon was recorded after the terrorist act in New Zealand, when a video of another mass murderer appeared, which, with the depiction of that monstrous event in real time, expanded the image of human failure. In that video, we see that this "defender" of Christianity was also inspired by similar events as his Nordic predecessor. If we have come to the point where a part of our population, mostly younger people, can look favorably on the facts that show that the white world's ultra-right criminals are inspired by the dishonorable war in Bosnia, then our entire society has stepped into a deep pathology. It belongs not only to those who look favorably on those monstrous events, but also to all those little ordinary people who shrug their shoulders and have no attitude, because one cannot have an attitude about a concrete and documented crime. All those relativizing side effects that accompany events that do not hide their monstrosity with anything interested me more than the topic of terrorism itself.
How do you see the attitude of the ruling political group towards culture in Montenegro?
- A rational perception of the socio-political situation in the country forces us to accept the usual priorities in the process of trying to overcome that situation. It is clear that the problems in the security, financial, economic and judicial segments, due to their scope and urgency for solving them, put the other departments in the executive power on the back burner, but the problem with culture is not only that it is not on the second plan, but that it is outside every plans. It remains on the "buffet table" of coalition agreements as a broken, tasteless canapé that no one wants, so it usually appeals to someone who, well, should be given some function, or that portfolio is given to some non-party structures that belong to desirable allies in the mostly formal fulfillment of the so-called European standards. . If the trend of this market subjugation by means of culture continues, the few phenomena that go beyond its increasingly palanquin character will disappear from it. If even those political actors who announce the new socio-political climate so loudly do not understand that it and how it depends on the state of culture, because that promised civil and institutionally functional society is looking for a cultural environment that will be compatible with it, we will continue to live in this grotesque simulacrum of such a society. To begin with, we must understand that on a practical level, the promised orderliness from election to election cannot be achieved in a society whose culture is divided into national camps, to which such a sign, by the nature of things, is imposed by an anachronistic and autistic cultural model, nor a culture that has been reduced to to the marketplace where mediocrities loyal to each government finish their private or party affairs. The invisibility and irrelevance of culture is even more pronounced today, and precisely thanks to this invisibility, those who occupy a leadership position in the field of culture can do whatever they want or do nothing. However, under the radar, if any radar covers culture, various corrupt machinations, private whims, the consequences of which are usually borne by the budget payers, devastating ignorance and an even more devastating lack of personnel knowledgeable about the state of culture.
There are quite unusual personal solutions in the area of cultural management... But do we have unrealistic expectations from those solutions, if we bear in mind that the government's attitude towards culture has been humiliating for decades?
- Dealing with personnel solutions in the institutional sphere of culture is a waste of time and energy, because even if these personnel who have strayed into culture were not in office, there would be other strays in their place. And what is worst, the government does not avoid better personal solutions in culture because of some fear of their possible subversiveness, if that fear existed it would mean that the government still perceives culture as a functional area in social and political life. There is something worse at stake, and this is best revealed to us in the fact that shows us that power in the most general sense of the word, power as a generic phenomenon of political power, has reached that level of cynicism thanks to which it is completely irrelevant what personal solutions will be in that area which could, in their opinion, not exist. More precisely, in this petrified partitocracy, we have long since entered the phase in which the attitude of those who exercise power is reduced to the bare "I can", which is largely the product of a completely pacified cultural and intellectual scene in us, a scene that is partly made up of incompetents to produce any kind of engagement, and partly those who have a completely ignorant attitude towards the bizarre reality in which we live. If there was a critical mass of engaged and knowledgeable people on the cultural scene, the importance and visibility of culture would certainly be greater, which is the first prerequisite for the government to show some leeway towards culture and for it to no longer be the sloppy, tasteless canapés on the buffet table of the negotiating party's cronies.
What is the importance of cultural institutions and in what condition have they been for years?
- The complete lack of any supervision of the department of culture has led to the fact that no one cares about what are the essential obligations of the relevant Ministry. A situation has been created in which you can turn a deaf ear to them without any consequences, without even some critical media telling you about it. That inactivity best reveals to you, as it usually does, the language used to communicate in that administration. That language will not give you any information about her specific activities. In all those so-called strategic plans, various reports, and up to the public address, you will find only one lexical orgy of empty platitudes and generalities, something that is the linguistic equivalent of the practice that our people call "fog work". It's enough to cover that foggy work with Potemkin's scenes on social networks, where those "important" events are immortalized - various panels and round tables where the attendees somehow delay their participation, deprived of any hope that anyone will remember those discussions tomorrow; signing some kind of contracts, the meaning of which remains in the very act of signing; there is also a whole self-promotional gallery from the opening of something. All in all, this Potemkinism proves to be quite sufficient proof of the functioning of this budjak-department.
Are the cultural creators themselves to blame for this state of culture?
- The situation and hierarchies in our society resemble those from Gogol's works. In those hierarchies, there is less of a problem with the perception of power by those at the top than the perception of power by those below. Whoever he chooses to occupy an office, he can count on the condescension of the vast majority of the widest circle of his subordinates. Almost the entire cultural scene grumbles about the catastrophic state of our culture, but also most of those offended will hardly wait for an offer to participate in creating such a state. Those who reject it with indignation self-satisfiedly shut themselves up in their solitude, devoted to their work and waiting for better times. None of them are aware that these better times do not come by themselves. That autism in culture and art is no better than the compromises made with the creators of this false culture. The expectation that one day some better personnel will emerge in leadership positions in culture goes against the logic of the established value system in our society, a society in which the cultural scene itself has agreed to its irrelevance. A culture without a publicly demonstrated critical attitude towards reality and without a desire to participate in shaping that importance can be nothing but an invisible culture. Such a culture suits any government and no government will try to change that situation and thereby possibly create a space from which to act critically on it. The culture that has been ours for a long time, which entertains little, evokes little, a good part of which serves political and national projects and does not ask for anything beyond what the institutions are willing to offer, is an area that neither can nor should be managed by some cadres of integrity. Culture today is decided by people who know devastatingly little about it, spent local activists of the former government and those who have caps with the symbol of each party in their wardrobes. In such an environment, there is no possibility even to point out essential problems, i.e. that at least some kind of idea is formed for solving them.
How do you see today's literary and publishing situation, how much is it different compared to previous times?
- We can already say a quarter of a century ago, a wave of prose writers appeared in our literature, which became a kind of regional phenomenon. He was characterized by a recognizable poetic and ideological intention, which is very important in the context of any kind of influence of literature on processes in society. But, just as progressive socio-political processes began to evaporate after gaining independence, instead of being raised to a higher level right then, the processes in culture and literature were reduced mainly to provincial encroachment. Since then, this situation in literary production has been disturbed only by the sporadic appearance of some significant literary works, which remained unsituated in any literary-value system, and, what is particularly problematic, remained without what makes the life of a book after printing - distribution, advertising and everything that should be defined by the relationship between publisher and author. In recent years, there have been noticeable changes for the better, both in the quality of recent literature and in the regulation of the author-publisher relationship, which, among other things, tells us a lot about the conditionality of this relationship. A new generation of talented authors has appeared, new works by proven authors of previous generations are also appearing, and new publishers are also appearing who sign regular contracts with authors, carry out distribution and do marketing. Although, to be honest, it seems a bit overwhelming that today we perceive as a significant achievement what is prescribed in the Law on Publishing Activities, which was adopted back in 2012. What still remains as a big problem is the complete lack of even serious literary criticism. The academic one, as usual, finds itself in the cobweb of its autistic periodicals, and the newspaper one, if it appears somewhere, generally does not go beyond the technical-informational framework. These days, and one could say in the last few months, a number of very important publications by local authors have appeared, which, I'm sure, will not be accompanied by any critical evaluation, and the special problem is that no one expects that anymore.
Bonus video:
