(Continuation from last issue)
Kcorrespondence as life, the work of Borislav Pekić, edited by Ljiljana Pekić, is an epistolary collection and confirmation of the great writer's gift of observation that, with the irony of a self-exile and the edge of spiritual and creative freedom - the counterbalance of indoctrination and nothingness, he dissects not only one social system but also a deeply threatened one the spirit of the intellectual community, to which he himself belonged. Borislav Pekić, a chronicler of literary life, let us use a series of three Plato's analogies: about the sun, the line and the cave, with a special emphasis on the third, in addition to the boxes with everyday ephemera, which interested him, also opened up some personal and general literary topics . As stated by the author of the preface of the subject edition, P. Palavestra, "...with his correspondence at the very end of the XNUMXth century, he refreshed and somewhat renewed Serbian epistolary literature. Critical consciousness was released, alternative cultural standards were taking shape..."
III Stationery: with the image of Marshal Tito
Address: Mr. Borislav Pekić
writer and first-time fighter
Railway resort
Lovran
"Pekić, communism made us ridiculous - let's get back at him, so to speak, with the same measure and force."
Bule
Ljubljana, August 1965
Correspondence between B. Pekić i M. Bulatović it is different from the others, although it is a testimony of the spirit and morality of the times of softer socialism. To a considerable extent, it is determined by the attitudes and dynamism of M. Bulatović, whose letters are more frequent and shorter than Pekić's, somewhat longer, but more restrained ("What can a writer say to anyone today, especially a writer"). M. Bulatović does not hesitate to irritate Pekić (darkening from 1948 to 1953) by, among other things, sending a postcard with Tito's character.
To some extent, the presence of ephemerality, triviality and vanity in their correspondence is surprising, especially towards the creators of a different code, their social treatment and awards, but at the same time, also in their circle: B. Pekić, M. Bulatović, M. Kovač, M. Glavurtić... And this tempo-style is imposed by Bule: "You are great, I miss you - because I am surrounded by idiots, interpreters." I write like cattle”.
In their correspondence, the third person is M. Kovač, portrayed through several prisms - from a "liar", an unreliable personality to an excellent writer ("It seems that sometimes he really lies (...) Kovač is really gifted"). Nothing new under the heavenly cap, both writers point out.
Their correspondence lasted twenty years. From 1965, when Bulatović was impressed by the novel "Time of Miracles", and when he transformed his novel "Hooligans" into "People with four fingers", until 1984, in a completely different way, when they were already established protagonists of modernism.
To conclude, in the correspondence you can feel Bulatović's respect for Pekić and his work and his desire for friendship with him, which is also shown by the way of addressing him: Dear Pekić, Mili and to that extent dear Pekić, Dear Duško, My dear Pekić...
The meaning of their lives and work, and everything related to them, was sublimated with his lucid spirit by the author of "The Golden Fleece": "The book will be the best answer to those who believe that patriotism and devotion to progress can best be demonstrated by defaming those who are better and more valuable than themselves. Only our books speak for us. Everything else can go to the mother of God".
IV Literature is a matter of rubber
Pekić writes to Danilo Kish:
"Literature is a matter of rubber, correspondence, crossing out (glue and scissors) - if I worked like you, I would never finish anything. To write from the beginning, that still surpasses everything. I am quite sure, though the writer has the best insight into his own business, that you are too hard on yourself."
The correspondence between B. Pekić and D. Kiš has been a conversation since long ago in 1965, even then, between two writers of modernist provenance, similar fate, close understandings of art, as well as many other things, but with different creative processes and profiles. Their correspondence is devoid of triviality and its pages are perceived as short stories, essays or studies. This correspondence and assistance to the founders of renewed modernism in the artistic, intellectual, and one might say humanistic sense, goes beyond correspondence with their other interlocutors.
In a letter dated April 10, 4, in which they published the novels "Time of Miracles", "Bašta Pepeo", Pekić is ashamed of his work, apart from his literary work, especially film scripts, "mainly because I intend to continue writing them ", he immediately states the reason: "I'm hungry, and so is my child."
Although they were fanatics about work and pen, they approached them differently: "I work like crazy (...) And I tell you, the results - nothing", complains Kiš Pekić, who writes to him that there is no time for such work, "otherwise he would be clean a madman if he always started from scratch".
In one letter in 1970, in connection with the rejected request to go to England, Pekić reacted briskly: "I simply cannot believe that they intend to keep me here for years. As if I am some kind of personality! Cheers, enemy of the people."
Ekho Orwell's of the narrative code is echoed in B. Pekić's ironic-satirical-sarcastic comment about the power outage in England, except in his neighborhood, which is attached to the Dog Clinic: "From that, one should not draw the conclusion that it is better to be a dog here. It's better everywhere. It's only good to be a purebred dog here. In Yugoslavia, which is against racism, that wouldn't help either."
All the correspondence of these icons of Yugoslav modernist literature, with a focus on the literary sphere and events in it, is imbued with that style and spirit, as well as inventiveness and sensibility.
V From the notebook about Borislav Pekić
Mirko Kovač, Sarajevo Volumes no. 13
"Pekić never talked with us about the architecture of his works, nor about the historical figures that roam the rooms of his novels, while he wrote about it extensively Mihizu, or Palavestri, as if he wanted to fascinate the critics so that they would once again understand that the compositions of novels are complex works, and that they would not think that it all easily springs from the cerebellum. A novel is erudition, that was Pekić's understanding of prose, and a novelist is a builder. Mihiz was intelligent, he felt that this erudition covers some shortcomings, that the accumulation of encyclopedic units is diluted into boredom, that so much mathematics and statics are unnecessary to "build a novel", so in one letter (June 3, 1979), loving Pekić and appreciating his gift, in a phenomenal and beautiful way he remarked to his son: "And the erudite is, if you forgive us, always a bit suspicious: if he knows so much, it must be that he is not even capable of something else and smarter."
The correspondence between B. Pekić and M. Kovač is dominated by three thematic circles: cooperation on film projects, Kovač's illness and treatment, and the cultural and literary scene. It is a shade more distant than the others and, for the modern reader, more uninteresting. M. Kovač was beaten, celebrated, and mourned by friends from his circle because of his long illness. As Pekić testified, they accused the government of her: "He lay for days without a diagnosis, sem political (our italics), which is the easiest to give THEM, to anyone who is struggling, sweating and rolling his eyes from pain". The diagnostician was Miodrag Bulatović, but the fortunate circumstance was that the author of "Door of the Womb" recovered.
Based on the data from the correspondence, M. Kovač's impression of Pekić, in addition to artistic perfection, is an expression of subjective experience, because he measured him by "footage" and gestures in moments of relaxation or excitement, and not by "mind", knowledge and work, valued by all significant awards despite his unchanging opposition stance. M. Kovač's statement about Pekić's skill, which is attributed to Montenegrin flattery, is even more subjective, admittedly, with reference to others.
But those moments of human weakness do not diminish the greatness of their deeds.
***
Pekić's correspondence is a reflection, but also a witness, of his creative credo and work. As for the scope and variety of themes and ideas, temporal-spatial relations, as well as for mythical reflexes and fantasy - a kind of interpreters and opponents of reality, and especially for universality and freedom of spirit. That is why, through the presented and concisely commented fragments, only parts of Borislav Pekić's cosmos can be seen - homo poeticus, homo politicus, rider of the apocalypse and icon of modern Yugoslav literature.
We experienced the journey through part of Pekić's correspondence as a trip to times when we had not yet seen the black and white world. However, he is still like that today. In it, light and darkness, autocracy and democracy, slavery and freedom are constantly fighting... It is perhaps superfluous to mention again the corona and other no less dangerous viruses, the cause of which has been human since the beginning.
The value of the works of Pekić and his contemporaries lies precisely in the fact that they evoked a humanistic vision of humanity through artistic criticism of the absurd. They were great loners, and it should be noted that some, like Pekić and Kiš, were given strength by their wives Ljiljana Pekić i Mirjana Miočinović, even by direct participation in the correspondence, and to others friends who formed the core of the critical consciousness of those times, among others: M. Bulatović, M. Kovač, M. Glavurtić, B. Šćepanović, F. David, B. Mihajlović...
The creator, one could say the source, of this peculiar correspondence was Borislav Pekić, thirsty for information from "home", which he himself confirms: "I found that I like to write letters. Without insisting on answers, I am convinced that when I go to London I will write to you often, so we will actually see each other more often than here."
We hope that this approach of ours, infected by socio-political reality, corresponds to the attitude of experts on culture and literature, as was the wizard of human alienation. E. Ioneska, with which we end the journey through Pekić's correspondence.
"Culture, in principle, is inseparable from politics. Both culture and politics are part of our life.
And in fact, culture consists of art, philosophy and metaphysics, science, religion, as well as all other forms of spiritual life.
And politics would have to represent some kind of science or art of arranging our relationships, so that it makes life in society tolerable, so that life, in the true sense, is cultural; however, in our time, it takes precedence over all other manifestations of the spirit."
***
Finally, we call the inkwell and pen of an academician as a witness Milivoja Solara, who says in one of his essays: "Literature is learned only by learning to talk about literature, and talking about literature means nothing else, but at least in one specific sense, responding to what literary works say.
Responding to the challenge of literature."
We think that Borislav Pekić is doing exactly that with his work.
It responds to the challenge of literature, so that history does not kill us, as in the book The philosophy of palanquin allegations R. Konstantinović, "...forgot, as if in some kind of great distraction".
Bonus video:
