It always seems impossible, until it happens

Student protests they overshadowed with their importance and grandiosity all other events in Serbia. However, those who follow the culture a little more could have noticed that the shortlist for the two current biggest domestic literary awards was a book I am wandering the world now dead. (Rende, 2024) by Borivoj Gerzić. "A novel about death and longing, meaninglessness and heaven, without fear and lies", poet Milena Marković wrote, among other things, about this work on the cover of the book. "A blank sheet of paper or a white computer screen has the same effect on everyone, ghostly. Regardless of fame, popularity, award, money. The artist and society are on opposite sides of the barricade. The only link between an artist and society is his work. That's where their communication starts and ends," says Borivoj Gerzić, writer and translator.

"WEATHER" Being the only author who made it to the finals of both the Nino Award and the Belgrade Winner is no small feat. Even though you didn't win the award, that in itself is a great recognition, isn't it?

BORIVOJ GERZIC: My attitude towards awards is twofold. Mine little me loves awards, and big me he despises them. Where am I alone? Apparently, somewhere in between. By all accounts, this book of mine is also somewhere in between - existence and non-existence, heaven and earth, man and non-man, and other contradictions - this is its position, somehow elusive. Let it stay at that. Perhaps the most valuable thing in her rests in that elusive space. And society, in a perfidious way, by inventing the institution of an award for a work of art, tries to bridge the gap between its own mediocrity and the artist's occasional creative leap from that same mediocrity, and to bring the artist down to his own mediocrity by patting him on the shoulder, praising him, forcing him to give speeches, to thank him with a plaque in his hand, to smile in front of the cameras. That is not the artist's job. His job is not to join society, his job is to beat society on the shoulders. An artist does not belong to the number one society and time, he should stay outside of it. He belongs to time number two, the mental world of spirit and ideas. He creates out of inner motivation and need, not for reward and recognition. If he needs them, in fact his ego needs them, little me, and not to the artist in him, his big me.

"The book is hermetic., but it is something that will last", a literary critic told me about your novel. How does that sound to you??

I have nothing against that label. The word "hermetic" traces its roots back to the time of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary ancient scientist, who was considered to be the guardian of the gates of secrets and natural laws. But what does it really mean if we say that a text is hermetic? It means that it is difficult to penetrate and that an effort must be made to access it. And without effort and pain - there is no science. What is easy, superficial, comfortable - such a book - may be pleasant, but it is forgotten as soon as the covers are closed. I prefer the reader to struggle. I can only hope that his pain will pay off.

The book is definitely not for everyone, you need to know literature well in order to get to the heart of what is written. There are essayistic considerations about life in the book, the world, death, to a man, to the woman... Spooky and comic scenes are mixed. What is, in fact, was the initial idea and did you get from the novel what you initially wanted?

When I start writing, I don't know what will come out. Something triggers me - it can be anything: a voice, a face, a couple of pigeons on the Sims. Or that first sentence appears by itself, as if the wind brought it from somewhere. Sometimes it's a verse, then a song grows, sometimes it's a sentence that becomes a short story or a novel - here a novel was born. The initial idea was to write a novel without a plot in the classical sense and without clearly profiled characters, a novel about nothing, so to speak, which will rely only on the inner strength of its own style, which will not depend on anything external and which will meander freely with the currents of its hero's consciousness. Writing is also a story about writing. Actually, a literary experiment. Did mine work? It seems to me that it is, but the readers also have their say, so we'll see. Although I don't think about the readers when I write, I write for those who are similar to me, actually, for some ideal self. I am not like the great Handel, for example, who was a crowd pleaser and yet composed magnificent works.

In some moments, the novel reminds a little of Samuel Beckett's prose, to which you have already dedicated one of your books (Beckett - man and work), or James Joyce. Do you like Beckett?-Joycean expression close?

These are two writers to whom I certainly owe literary, philosophical and other insights. Joyce and Beckett are two antipodes - a teacher and a student (who in some ways surpassed the teacher). Where did these two great Irishmen touch each other, where did they diverge? The description of Joyce's biographer Elman is well known, where he shows them sitting together and silent (Paris, 1930s), without it bothering either of them. Joyce, however, believed in words. In the fact that, when used correctly, they carry a magic that connects man with the numinous. He devoted his entire literary century to attempts to dive into transcendental forces with words (so that his words become transcendental forces), so for the purposes of writing somnambulistic Finnegan almost invented a new language. Beckett didn't believe the words. For him, they could be, as he said somewhere, the invention of a mad god who makes fun of people. Beckett's late heroes will end up as disembodied beings, neither alive nor dead, voices endlessly swirling thoughts and moans, but still beings with nothing left but words. And Beckett eventually came to the conclusion that words are all his heroes have. He formulated the difference between himself and Joyce as follows: "He, as an artist, strives for omniscience and omnipotence. I, on the other hand, work in weakness and ignorance".

Whether I wander., indirectly, and your family novel?

A writer should write about what he knows, what is in his blood. What do we know best if not ourselves and our family? Although I used my family (near and far), and the events related to it, as a springboard for a freer and more general poetics - to write about all families and about a person who can be anyone.

At one point, the protagonist recounts how a psychiatrist asks him why he likes unstable women, and he answers"Because the whole world is unstable". Then he adds that stable women are something unbearable, as well as everything that surrounds us. Zaista, what is it that sometimes attracts us to troubled and unstable people?

Perhaps a troubled man is the true image of the world. His unadulterated reflection. An unproblematic man lay down on the ore and the ore buried him. Be it family, work, marriage, career, ambition... A troubled person wants change, he is dissatisfied with the world, and even if he deviates in this problematic situation, he is at least active - and therefore interesting for literature. As for women, with their colorful skirts and dresses and ribbons in their hair and bangs and curls, although that is only the surface, they are more complex and stronger beings than men, and even more dangerous. Women are the earth, the foundation on which the world rests. I've spent my whole life with women and I almost adore them, the only thing is that a man can't get the words out of them. They talk a lot. But that is probably the merit of prehistoric times, when they sat in caves and waited with their children for a man who went hunting. It is quite possible that women are the creators of speech, those essential qualities that will separate us from animals and lead us to civilization. A man had to develop himself and his race in another direction - to be silent (in hunting) and strive for action.

Why is the book in Cyrillic?? Is there any particular reason??

Cyrillic is a more intimate script for me. Maybe it's my illusion that Cyrillic is warmer. Although I also like Latin, I have been writing only in Latin (by hand) all my life. Using both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets is an asset, but also a pain, especially if you constantly have to switch from one to the other on the computer.

You have been living on the mountain for some time, You left town.. What change has it brought in your life?

Ten years ago I bought a house and land in the vicinity of Rudnik and I think it was one of the best moves in my life. I moved away from the city, from that seething hen house full of aggression. On the contrary, trees, meadows, grass, streams... all this fills a person with a positive charge. The city is also too expensive. Someone is constantly putting their hand in your pocket (mainly merchants and secikes) - everywhere you turn, everything is paid for. In the countryside, you have nothing to spend on. Perhaps one could even survive almost completely without money. There is wood for heating, fruits and vegetables are there, water and clean air as well. Everything is almost free. We spend money mostly on stupid things. And in order to get money, we are ready to kill.

Do you follow the current student protests in Serbia and how much does it affect you??

I follow, from the hills. Whom to support if not youth, even with all its naivety? This is the world of young people, not mine anymore, and they should fight for that world. From what I can see, they are doing well. The only thing is that now is the time to hit the table. All this so far had elements of modeling, idealism, parading, parties. Now they need to become concretely political, to choose twenty or so of the best from their own ranks, take political responsibility and - go to the elections as a collective force. Another possibility is that their youthful energy will give birth to a new leader whom they will support. The third is that they continue to demonstrate in front of every institution that is not doing its job in Serbia - and that would mean demonstrating endlessly. I vote for the third variant, it would be like some kind of permanent revolution, which does not end with a simple change of the guards-authorities, where the new government soon becomes as corrupt as the old one, if not even more corrupt. If the young do not take over the management of the world, then they will go to die for the interests of the clans that are now in charge, and this applies not only to the situation in our country, but also in the world. This verminous government of ours, with all its poisonous pinks and heppies, should be dispossessed as soon as possible. Although, what government is not a pest? A thousand people, who know each other, manage the fate of the planet, and choose their successors exclusively among themselves. The people, on the other hand, cannot think, and the rulers are powerful and corrupt. Sometimes it seems to me that the Creator of this world had a lot of fun creating it. I still want to believe in a youthful utopia, that a life worthy of a human being is possible, where the measure of the relationship towards others is not to endanger anyone's dignity. That it is possible for the opposing parties to come to an agreement, that it is possible for man to curb his greed and selfishness, that it is possible to fundamentally fix the world. But what if the world is immutable, if only cosmetic changes are possible that seem profound to superficial people, and if there is no way out of the space pressure cooker in which we have all been simmering since time immemorial? The only thing we can really do is find each other in trouble - as we sink into the unknown. But let me try to be optimistic and repeat with Nelson Mandela, who experienced it on his own skin: "It always seems impossible, until it happens".