Đurović for "Vijesti": Nonsense is important, as are greetings, knowledge, Montenegro...

She wrote a nonsense, and she is very proud that she wrote a nonsense. None of her close people have the heart to tell her that she wrote a nonsense. When she is confronted with the character of the Director, he deciphers the nonsense. She explains the nonsense herself. But, what is important is that she wrote a nonsense and that a series of people, led by the director, came together to make that nonsense. And that is what is funny and interesting.

Thus, she introduces the protagonist of her first novel for "Vijesti" Sara Đurović, herself a screenwriter and (playwright).

However, "The Writer and Director do everything - except work on the text," states the description of the work on the website of the publishing house "Nova knjiga", at whose International Book and Education Fair it was presented this week.

Sara Đurović's debut novel attracts, but also keeps at a distance, with its very title - "I'm leaving, so see you later". Undoubtedly, it is a witty story full of sharp humor, which is increasingly lacking, with an authentic atmosphere that is superbly constructed, without superfluous words, unnecessary and unconvincing descriptions, but from the head - with the thoughts, eyes, senses and mood of the protagonist.

"The story is generational, only millennials can experience and commit so much stupidity," comments Đurović in response to one of the questions from "Vijesti"...

By reading "I'm leaving, see you later", readers will learn the importance of some everyday events, situations and phenomena, on various levels, but they will also learn to read them. All this, through getting to know the irresistible characters of the famous text, or the nebula, as Đurović says, and the characters are: Crna, Zalutala and Rad, Red, Diciplina ovaca... A quality conversation, good fun, interesting reading, but also confirmation of the gloomy reality and insight into everything that we ourselves are, is practically guaranteed, but sometimes confirmation - or, intentionally, negation - is needed.

"Greetings are important, as is the lack of them. Montenegro is important, cognition is important, consciousness is important, introspection is important, melancholy is important, and the search for oneself and identity is also important," says Đurović, and further - discover in the novel itself, with all the characters and their completely realistic relationships.

This is a novel that follows a young writer, not to sound politically incorrect - a writer - who is faced with the realization of a play based on her text. It is a novel about what is being talked about in the region, in these relaxed communications, in various other ways, with a certain kind of tragicism - doubts - but in an ironic, self-ironic, deadpan and humorous way. Doubts and youth and doubts within youth...

Sara Đurović was born in 1995 in Podgorica, grew up in Nikšić, and graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. She is the recipient of the “Josip Kulundžić” award from that faculty and the Talents Sarajevo alumni for 2022. She is the author of the play “Isti”, which was based on the award-winning play performed at the Montenegrin National Theatre, “Aura”, and the radio drama “Year of the Tiger”, which was published in the web magazine Eckermann. The text “Majmun u raju” was published in the journal for literature, culture and social issues “Ars”. She is the screenwriter of several award-winning short feature films screened at festivals, as well as a feature film in the making “Plod”, supported by the Film Centre of Montenegro and the Film Centre of Serbia. This is her first novel, published by the publishing house “Nova knjiga”.

Your first novel, “I'm Gone, See You Later,” was recently published. How would you present it as an author, what does it bring to us, when and how was it created, and were there any particular influences or motives during its creation?

My whole life has been shaped by various influences, both physical and textual, musical and cinematic. so-called references. The protagonist, as well as the other characters in the novel, are also burdened with influences, various references are mentioned throughout the novel as a comment on a given situation, circumstance or state, so logically - the idea was to free myself from references in the idea for the novel and the process of writing itself. To give you a better idea, I will give you an example of a novel that I read on the way from my apartment to my job at the time, while I was simultaneously writing the novel “The Circle Closes” by Knut Hamsun. The process looked like I was writing, as always, and my motivation was to have fun in the process for the first time. I wrote a chapter daily, periodically, and finished the first version of the novel after a few months. I listened to music while I was writing, mainly the music mentioned in the novel and after which the chapters are titled, by the following musicians: Patti Smith, Younger Brother, God is an astronaut, Low, Pink Floyd, I may have left someone out. The editor's idea was to title the chapters after the music that alludes to the given chapter. In the first version, the chapters were scripted: 1, 2, 3, etc., because I was essentially writing.

I was particularly interested in the title itself, “I'm leaving, see you later.” It sounds familiar, repeated, casual, a bit emotional. Although at the beginning of the book, we are practically already saying goodbye... What does the title introduce us to and what does it mean in this context?

Exactly what you said. I titled the novel at the end of the first draft and thought a lot about the title, so that in the end the chosen one came intuitively. I sent it to colleagues whom I trusted at that moment and they criticized me and had various theories. Thank you to them for that, because I would not have selected it otherwise. However, I remained principled with that title and I am happy with it. Writing involves coming up with a title, and screenwriting involves coming up with a logline, so although essentially generating a thought and opening your mouth to say it is hard work, the title came quite casually, all things considered. Greetings are important.

The protagonist takes us through everything she experiences in her everyday life. She reveals her days, thoughts, conflicts and confrontations... Communication with the readers is also opened. How universal and how personal is this story?

“I'll Go and See You” is a novel that follows a young writer, not to sound politically incorrect - a writer - who is faced with the realization of a play based on her text. It is a novel about what is talked about in the region, in these relaxed communications, in various other ways, with a certain kind of tragicism - doubts - but in an ironic, self-ironic, deadpan and humorous way. Doubts of both youth and doubts within youth. Personally, I always run away from universality in the process, but I would still say that, with a certain kind of inner doubt, it is universal. The story is generational, so much stupidity can only be experienced by millennials and prepared by millennials.

One of the central lines of the novel is the process of working with the director on a play for which the protagonist wrote the text. Her characters, Crna, Zalutala and Red Rad Disciplina ovce, seem funny and interesting at first, and then quite symbolic. Do they depict us as individuals, the divisions we live in, and to what extent do they serve as a metaphor for society?

The idea was this: she wrote a nebula, and she is very proud of having written a nebula. None of her close people have the heart to tell her that she wrote a nebula, and when she is confronted with the character of the Director, he deciphers the nebula. She explains the nebula herself. But what is important is that she wrote a nebula and that a series of people, led by the Director, came together to make that nebula. And that is what is funny and interesting. Nebulas are also, like greetings, important.

Does humor in the novel serve more as protection, distance, or a way to make some things easier to say?

It is a distance, but also a process that creates a “ride”.

Often, it is through humor that themes of alienation and misunderstanding in relationships, from family to partner relationships, and then even business ones, are woven. Can we say that the novel is a generational story in which many will recognize themselves? To what extent is it itself a product of the individual and the inner, and to what extent is it a product of society and circumstances?

In essence, it can. Central to every relationship is precisely alienation. My generation, our generation, grew up in alienation and such is the contemporary moment. The novel, on the other hand, is more a product of the individual and the inner, and advocates individualism, and as for society and circumstances, society is presented in the novel as petty-bourgeois, provincial, collectivist, dramatic, but one of the questions behind that is: Montenegro is important and why are we not better than this behavioristically idiotic outburst of ours, when we are of quality? And that is what is funny.

The story of departures and returns is also included here... Whether in a novel or in society, are departures and returns a lack of foothold or freedom, or a path towards self-knowledge and the search for oneself?

They are both. Greetings are important, as is the lack of them. Montenegro is important, knowledge is important, awareness is important, introspection is important, melancholy is important, and the search for oneself and identity is also important. Sometimes, when one has no foothold, there is nowhere to go but to be free, and that is what is actually, when not viewed with a dose of regional tragedy and unnecessary pathos, beautiful. Until you lose your phone.

You write from a personal perspective, without pathos, satirically, occasionally self-ironic, but humorously and thoughtfully, concisely and devoid of excess... How challenging was writing in the first person, technically, stylistically, and intellectually? Did and to what extent did your dramaturgical and screenwriting experience help you with the structure of the novel and the narrative?

Thank you, I can only be ashamed. I always less is more (less is more, ed.) and I pay a lot of attention to style, even in screenplays that many call templates. Screenwriting teaches you the following things - precision, rhythm, editing and structure. It was very useful to me when writing novels, and my editor insisted that these four things be further strengthened. Editors, as much as I whine spoiledly about having an editor, are, for God's sake, just as important. The most challenging thing was writing the ending, the last chapter. Writing in the first person was not challenging - at this stage I find it braver and simpler than writing in the third person.

Was the aforementioned self-irony a way for you to maintain distance from your own experiences, if you did it at all? And did self-fiction allow for greater authorial freedom?

I have no idea about self-irony. I think that every person, and this is something that many people in our region don't understand, in order to be ironic, they need to be self-ironical. Or vice versa. It has allowed me greater freedom as an author, and I essentially had no idea that I had written self-fiction until I wrote the novel.

When can we expect promotions and are you already working on something new?

I'm in agreement with the publisher Kosmos/Nova Knjiga, I expect it to be soon. I'm currently thinking about a new idea for a novel. That idea has a very clear and concrete reference and it will be a standard black hole.

She had fun and finished the novel.

Given that this is your first novel, how do you experience it and what was the most difficult part of the writing process for you, the beginning, the middle, or the final conclusion and release of the text?

The hardest part was writing the ending and the final conclusion, the rest was easy, because it was fun for me for the first time and I didn't write my own and other people's standard nonsense. But, nonsense is important, just like fun. I feel like I had fun and finished it. Just airing it was liberating because four years passed between finishing the first version and airing it. The ball is round, anything can happen.

A writer is not a dancing bear.

What is the position of young authors in literature, and then also of young playwrights, writers and screenwriters in the profession?

What people forget when they talk about writers and screenwriters and playwrights is that the work is something that someone wrote. The writer is not a dancing bear, the writer wrote the work. And I would like to see that change. And I'm glad that my colleagues and I are working on it through different processes.