A Nail in the Coffin of Authorship: Towards the Culture Act (4)

DRAFT

The current draft law does not give even 5% of attention to the author (the guarantor of culture), while dedicating 90% to institutions and the so-called creative industries. A rather unnatural ratio (the reverse would be more natural).

Such a law would extend the showbiz course from 2000 to 2025: the author (without whom an era is a mere wasteland called GDP) gets crumbs, and 2/3 of public resources and money go to festivals (organizing other people's ideas).

The spirit of Montenegro is most importantly determined by verbal creativity; (when I say literature and literacy, I mean the verbal heritage of all languages ​​from Old Slavonic and Latin to the present day, 1000 years; and the fact that the word and the book have defined everything else in our country; and the fact that no Montenegrin without his verbal heritage would know anything except what he learns abroad.)

Verbal creativity, however, is in last place. Common sense dictates that it be brought back to the forefront, and that the import of festival goers (arranging other people's ideas for our money) and the sweet-talking mumbo-jumbo, called creative industries (the intrusion of cottage industries into the budget for artistic creation) be reconsidered.

And throw it away, at least half.

Reasonableness doesn't hurt; there are more pressing tasks ahead than festivals and creative industries.

LITERATURE AND LITERACY

The history of CG ideas lies in verbal creativity.

The law should respect it through equal treatment of citizens: public-private partnership (PPP). The state is interested in results, not empty talk; the former enriches it with the swindler, the latter deceives and exploits dormant institutions.

The book and the letter are victims of 25 years of neo-communist unilateralism; a regime that has remained silent Njegošev 200th anniversary (known for plundering socialist assets and poisoning ethnic wells) he put everything in the hands of the party bureaucracy.

Textuality is invisible. Book purchase blocked. No critical perception, no perception at all. No periodicals. No new ideas. No cultural consequences (without a permanent textual trace, millions of photos from the stage are nothing). Institutions have been arguing for 25 years about what their people, church and language are called, and will argue for another 25 if the law does not condition their support on their results.

The law requires an annual evaluation of the results of institutions by a top committee (not by high school graduates and semi-high school graduates, like the jury for state awards; it is not polite for a high school graduate to evaluate a state award).

Nothing affects or shakes the social climate like the decline of authorship.

The history of ideas is exact, and here our results are thin. The only big idea in Montenegro for 25 years is state independence. Institutions do provide an annual list of events, forums, and a list of revelry; however, the state has no obligation towards entertainment, but towards its permanent vectors (military and police, political, educational, ideological security).

AUTHOR

The foundation of culture is not institutions, skills and crafts, nor municipal activists (fed as if they were leading the blind through Bosnia) - but ideas.

Ideas and authors - the only ones who, in the public discourse of Eastern Europe, vented the ravines of neo-communism through small narratives (creativity is a Promethean narrative).

If the legislator does not show respect for PPP (EU practice), the law will immediately push away the authentic bearer and guarantor of ideas.

If it privileges institutionalists once again, and adds new creative industrialists, the law can clone one into another for the next 25 years by providing care for the slobs, and driving the Promethean creative intelligence, to the winds, into humiliation.

Montenegro is only the third largest economy in Europe, so another law favoring festivals and entertainment (consuming what is not produced), and miserably positioned towards verbal creativity, would hammer a nail into the coffin of authorship on which we rest.

The natural state of CG is alternative and experimental (avant-garde) creativity - the Promethean principle. Without the Promethean virtue of the author, the public scene would be a bunch of poseurs.

Verbal creativity on the soil of Montenegro has built a stronger half of our consciousness in 1000 years, and it is the only one of all South Slavic literatures that does not have its own canonical edition (the PSHK edition, Five Centuries of Croatian Literature, has been published in 180 volumes so far; the collection Bosnian Literature in 100 Books has so far published 13 volumes; in 1957, Serbian Literature in 100 Books began and has since been reedited at least twice; in 2001, the edition Croatian Literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 100 Books was started, of which 40 have been published to date; etc.).

If anywhere literature has played a fateful role in the development of a nation, it is Montenegro. However, we do not have a canonical edition, even with five authors of world literature measured by great epochs (Dimitrije Sinaijit, ? - 1075; Ljudevit Paskvalić, 1500 - 1550; Gavrilo Trojičanin, ? - 1651; Andrija Zmajevic, 1628 - 1694; Njegos, 1813 - 1851).

In this neglect of the stronger half of the national consciousness, to invent, now, hot water, would be a fool's errand and a waste of money. What are creative industries?

JPP

Creative industries are a new model for Western governments (not just the Ministry of Culture, but all departments) to use surplus capital to turn production into the economy, industry, crafts, tourism, design, ecology, etc. In our country, this has been poorly interpreted on the internet: we have poured everything into the poorest department, taking money away from books and literacy, so that bureaucracy can finally be thrown into authorship, even though Lovćen will collapse into the sea first.

Surplus capital came with surplus value in Western nations. Each completed its canon as it replaced mega-narratives (Enlightenment, ideology, Christian salvation, Marxism) with small narratives like PPP. Westerners defined their humanistic foundations before the arrival of AI, we did not.

And now, we, to imitate the English or German model, and we have not yet rounded off the foundation (when I say literature, I mean all time: the greatest information capital of Montenegro) - are we at our wits' end?

Allowing bureaucracy to steal money from literacy, for tours and conferences, for someone else's ayter - are we in our right mind?

The PPP program holder is something else, he creates and takes risks: if the program is not good, his efforts are in vain. The institutionalist does not have these worries. He can do nothing and know nothing - he answers to no one.

If you don't believe me, take a look at the performance of humanities institutions in Montenegro in 25 years, there is almost nothing permanent there. Over 90% of permanent results came from the Promethean energy of Montenegrin authors outside the institutions. The institutionalist is rewarded for his cash - the author is ignored for his work.

Creativity 1945-90 had virtue (the Promethean principle), which neo-communism 2000-2025, however, turned into loyalty to plundering infrastructure and poisoning ethnic wells. This law comes at a strange time. It is important beyond that.

Definitely, the legislator has the say: institutions and PPPs should share resources according to their performance approved by the highest institution (Government) including usurped resources of the institutions themselves. An institution that does not justify privileges should share space and financial resources with PPPs.

Note: this text is not directed against anyone personally or against any institution (the signatory is za institutions, or against parasitism); at the gates of the EU, it is worth remembering that 50 years ago, Western nations rejected the worn-out narrative (Marxism) and accepted the small but effective narrative of PPP for social progress.