Artists about their time

Two capital books: "Diary 1994-1998" Živojin Pavlović and "Serbian epistolary anthology of the 20th century" Radovan Popović are new editions of the Zrenjanin publishing house Agora.

The diary of Živojin Pavlović covers the last four years of his life, from 1994-98. year, and it was prepared by the artist's wife Snezana Lukić Pavlović, actress, journalist, translator, and writer herself (Other room.

Živojin Pavlović, writer and filmmaker, kept diaries for almost 50 years and in them uncompromisingly recorded the reality he lived and what happened to him. All books were published posthumously - the first six in 2000 and the last one last year.

The 1994-1998 diary is divided into three parts. The first is entitled "Abyss": "Footsteps of the God Mars" and covers the period of 1994 and 1995. The second part of "Provalija": "Jeka", brings Pavlović's records from 1996, 1997 and 1998, while the third - "Stranputica", is filled with reflections of a more general character and quotes from texts from newspapers and books, starting from April 15, 1998, until the last days of the writer's life.

In these diaries, Pavlović writes about everyday life, the civil war in Yugoslavia, thinks about various life topics, quotes numerous famous and unknown people, and publishes other people's and his own texts and interviews.

The first diary entry is dated April 10, 1994, and refers to the NATO bombing of Serbian positions in Bosnia near Goražde. From that date onwards, the intention of the author of Dnevnik will be to closely follow war events outside Serbia, socio-political and cultural events in Serbia itself, but also the deeply arrogant and hypocritical involvement of the world in the war that destroyed the SFRY.

Pavlović, following the daily events in the area of ​​the former Yugoslavia, knows very well how to criticize the Serbian mentality, tendency towards nationalism and stupidity. In one place he says ironically: "Serbia is rising like a Phoenix from the ashes." Or like a ditch drunk". Pavlović also notes this: "Human criteria also depend on the peculiarities of war. This war, at least as far as the Serbs are concerned, is also retrograde in the sphere of aesthetics: everything that has, or receives, a national taste - everything is at a higher price, what has a general, all-round color of European or universal taste - is increasingly exposed to contempt and contempt. Hence in the poetry the ever stronger echoes of the epic (Bećkovič, Simović, Nogo) in literature - oral literature (Ćosić, Medaković, Mihiz), in pagan or Church Byzantine painting (Trkulja, Stevanović, Milić from Mačva). "

Through this diary, Pavlović tries to look at "the true state of the Serbian mental structure", convinced that only this look "will not only provide a sound basis for the interpretation of tragic historical events, which, we are witnessing, can never become the past", but will also truly illuminate the the historical past "beyond mythomaniac blindness, due to which, for now, there is no difference between the collective view of the past, the present, and, unfortunately, the future of the Serbian people".

Through this Diary, Pavlović takes us through major events and his intimacy, such as the loneliness he talks about with Alexander Tishma, the metaphors of everyday life, the landscapes of Divčibar that calm him and the fatigue he feels from raising his fearlessness on a pedestal at the time of the black wave in the film. He communicates with world literature all the time, quoting individual works, giving his Diaries a different dimension with that dialogue. And although he called writing "Note-taking" and described it as an egocentric illusion, and expressed doubt that a fixed personal view of events that do not directly concern the writer can be of any significance, Živojin Pavlović left his unique testimony about us in one moment and the book that perhaps best illustrates the title of the library where it was published - "View over everything".

Živojin Pavlović was a Serbian film director, screenwriter, writer (Šabac, April 15, 1933 - Belgrade, November 29, 1998). Graduated in painting from the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade (1953). He appeared in literature with collections of short stories Crooked river (1963) and Diary of an Unknown (1965), in which he gives his view of war and modern life in simple, "filmic" terms. The problem of the existence of the individual, threatened by the prevalence of mediocrity and impersonality, is dealt with in his entire oeuvre: novels (Dolls1965; Cain and Abel1969; Body odor1982; The wall of death1985; Tiger hunting1988; Game trail1991; Lapot1992; Symmetry1996; Cabinet, 1997), short stories (Two evenings in autumn1967; Gypsy cemetery1972; Wind in the dry grass1976; Slices of time, 1993) and essays (The devil's movie1969; About disgusting1972; Whiteness tomorrow1984; Balkan jazz, 1989). Published conversation books Core of tension (1990) Madness in the mirror (1992) and six volumes of diary entries (Diary 1956–1993, 1999).

The letters of famous writers of the 20th century from the book "Serbian epistolary anthology of the 20th century" by Radovan Popović reveal precious information about people and social events. Sometimes they are real little essays. There are writers who enjoyed epistolary confessions, as in the world of epistolary mutual confession Andre Zida i Roger Martin di Gara. In us it could be confession Miodrag Bulatović i Mirko Kovača or isidore with a multitude of correspondents with whom she maintained closeness until the end of her life. This book is, in fact, a Serbian epistolary novel, in fragments, from the beginning to the end of the century, and it was written by writers of different aesthetic and ethical orientations, but often quite honestly, without the rest.

According to the testimony Dušan Matić none of the writers he knows has skimmed and read so many histories, biographies, letters, letters, letters, as Ivo Andric. Epistolary literature has always been interesting and significant reading, reading for reading and studying "the traffic between people of the pen". The so-called enveloped literature in the world has always been developed, cultivated most often as a kind of conversation or discussion about the philosophy of life and work, but also quite personal, usually emotional questions of the letter writer. They are famous Voltaire, Goethe, Kafkin letters. For example, according to his biographers, Kafka wrote three letters a day. The most famous letter writers in the 20th century in Serbian literature were Laza Kostic and Isidora Sekulić. In their epistles, they unhesitatingly opened their souls and confessed about life's hardships, most often about family misfortunes, gatherings and friendships, but also about the hardships of writing their books. Surrealists in interwar literature practiced everyday letter writing, especially Marko Ristic.

Among the pages of this book there are letters from: I. Andrića, M. Antić, M. Bogdanović, M. Bojić, M. Bulatovića, S. Vinaver, D. Vitošević, P. Vujićić, Z. Gluščević, O. Davič, V. Dedijer, V. Desnica, M. Dedinac, R. Dimitrijević, R. Domanović, R. Drainac, J. Dučić, M. Đilas, D.Erić, R.Zogović, A.Isaković, D.Jeremić, S.Jovanović, Lj.Jocić, M.Kašanin, D.Kiš, M. Kovača, R. Konstantinović, L. Kostića, P. Kočić, E. Koš, IVLalić, M. Leskovac, S. Lukić, D. Maksimović, T. Manojlović, S. Marić, D. Marković, L. Markonij, D. Matić, M. Pavić, N. Milošević, B. Miljković, BMMihiz, Lj. Micić, M. Nastasijević, B. Nušić, P. Palavestra, S. Pandurović, B. Pekić, R. Petrović, K. Popović, B. Popović, S. Raičković, M. Rakić, D.Ređepa, J.Ribnikar, M.Ristića, ASRebac, I.Sekulić, M.Selimović, J.Skerlić, B.Stankovića, B.Ćopića, D.Ćosića, M.Uskokovića, P.Ugrinova, M.Crnjanski.

All the letters of these writers reveal to us the other, more human side of these creators, so they remain precious documents about what and how people thought outside their profession and the image that we, as readers, have of them. Modern technology is slowly destroying the letter as a means of communication between people and writers. So precious clues about life in general are also lost.

Radovan Popović was born in 1938 in the village of Dub near Bajina Bašta. He finished high school in Uzice, and studied literature in Belgrade. He was the editor of the cultural supplement of Politika for many years, and he also published a whole series of literary biographies. For the book "The Life of Meša Selimović" he was awarded the October Award of the City of Belgrade for Literature in 1988. He is known as the most famous Serbian biographer.