The hall of the 20th International Podgorica Book and Education Fair was filled to capacity last night at the literary evening with Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović, who treated the audience to an emotional, humorous and deeply honest conversation about love, loneliness, literature, women, reading and the times we live in.
Moderator of the evening Jelena Božović She opened the conversation with an unusual announcement - verses from one of the most famous love songs of the evening: "Since you never loved me enough to hold my hand, or take me to the sea, to some distant port, to feed me with your fingers, to pick a starfish for me; That we walk down the street with your hand on my waist. Or, that you walk with me to the church of St. Elias, on some Greek island or on the mainland, if you prefer...
The writer immediately continued in the same tone:
"Yes, you were with me in every poem! In books, in worries, in cakes, in watercolors, and other colors! In the hems of dresses, in all nearnesses, and distances! In conversations, in lakes and seas! In ups and downs, and in creative crises...I killed you and kissed you, and brought you back to life, to meet you at the end of a story. Or, for the needs of a small stanza, yes, I put periods, commas, and apostrophes for you! As you can see, I hide nothing. I really have nothing to regret: Because, I am a pilgrim, and love is my Jerusalem."
The evening immediately took on the tone of an intimate conversation about emotions, and the host asked Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović if love is still the most beautiful theme in literature.
"Of course it is," the writer replied. "Especially when it's not there. Love has been banished from the public scene. It has been replaced by other values of materialistic civilization: sex, success, status and money. But people who have loved have memories. Those who have not loved have nothing to remember."
Referring to these words, Duško Radović, she pointed out that the same applies to art:
"Long live art, because only through art can we fight and win in this civilizational battle of light and darkness, good and evil. And I have good news - we are winning."
The conversation then turned to the problems of contemporary society and the question of whether today's generations love differently.
Bobić Mojsilović assessed that man has become a victim of the global civilization of speed and illusion: "They have imposed on us electronics, speed and many illusions that we are loved, that we are important and that we exist, while on the other hand they constantly send us the message that we will never be young enough, beautiful enough, successful enough and important enough."
It is precisely from this feeling, she believes, that the "epidemic of loneliness" arose, which her novel "Constellation of Fireflies" also discusses.
Speaking about the book, she said that its basic idea is that a person who reads can never be "zero".
"The media convinces us that an ordinary person who is not a millionaire, who does not have the biggest muscles, who is not a Kardashian, has nothing to hope for. And I have a counter-thesis: a person who reads always and everywhere has the protection of the books he has read."
She was particularly inspired to tell the story that inspired her to create one of the novel's characters. It was about a city sanitation worker from Belgrade, a man she had met in the area for years and who one day told her to study and read 52 books a year.
"He told me: 'Everyone is laughing at me.' I replied: 'You are the hero of Belgrade, the hero of Serbia, the hero of our time.'"
She posted their photo on Instagram, and the story soon went viral.
"In two days he became the most beautiful story in Serbia. They invited him to shows, to television, to the City Assembly, they gave him the collected works of Dostoevsky in a leather binding. And the best thing of all - they took him off his broom and gave him a job in an office."
The audience greeted this story with loud applause. The evening continued with discussions about social networks and modern lifestyles.
"The biggest lie of the Matrix is that it convinced us that we are self-sufficient. You used to need another person to take a photo, but today you have a selfie - you admire yourself."
She added with a laugh that today people count likes and hearts on Instagram, believing that it confirms their worth.
A special part of the conversation was dedicated to women writers and female audiences.
"Women are the biggest readers today. They buy books, come to literary evenings, go to the theater. It was logical that a large number of women writers would be born from this."
She criticized the term "women's writing", emphasizing that literature cannot be divided by gender.
"Literature cannot be divided by hormones. There is no estrogen and testosterone literature. There are only good and bad books."
She added: "If it weren't for women reading, there wouldn't be a publishing industry today."
Speaking about literature, she pointed out that every writer is in fact an autobiographical writer.
"You can't write outside of your own experience. All the books you've read, all the people you've met, all the movies you've seen - it all goes into your writing."
She also said that libraries, books, and poetry almost always appear in her books.
"My heroes are always searching for the book that will change their lives."
The evening ended with her reading of a long, emotional poem about jealousy, missed loves, and the wrong timing of emotions. The audience listened to the lyrics in silence, then rewarded her with a long round of applause.
At the end of the evening, Bobić Mojsilović thanked the audience and the organizers of the fair, emphasizing that she always feels at home in Montenegro.
For the end, perhaps her most important sentence of the evening remained:
"Every man in this world deserves one good sentence."
We are all like fireflies - we last a short time, so let's shine a little.
The author also spoke about her personal crisis during the pandemic and the emergence of one of the most important moments in the novel. She recounted how she met a young man in front of her building who she instinctively sensed was coming to collect a debt from the son of a homeless neighbor.
"I asked him, 'Please don't do this. That woman is immobile.' He looked at me and said, 'But he's wrapped half of the Witch Doctor in black.'"
As she said, she told him then: "No one has ever called you a good man."
At her words, the young man cried.
"He started running down the street, and I shouted after him, 'Because of what you did today, God will be with you when you need him most.'"
That scene later became pivotal in the novel.
"No one will be lonely anymore if they have the strength to look another in the eye. We are all like fireflies - we last a short time, so let's shine a little."
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
