Prologue

SORROW OF MASTERS IN THE AGE OF CHARLATANISM
Nothing Lasts Forever

If young Vasko Popa showed up in Belgrade today and presented the manuscript of his immortal Upright Country to ”leading publishers”, the half-educated little editors would mock him. They’d ask him to find a sponsor for his book. Perhaps some, with their concreted brains, would even accuse him of being a residue of some ”former regime”. If a gentlemen-like young man named Ivo Andrić brought his just finished collection of stories, he’d first be confronted with a series of indecent refusals. Then they’d invite him to stand in line with the suddenly literated TV show hosts and singers, with provincial comic book writers, crooks and little journalists. In the center of charlatanism and triviality. Then, with a bit of luck and mercy of the background structures, he’d reach the cross-eyed switchman deep in the lagoon. He’d request him to simplify Anika, reduce Đerzelez and kick out Mustafa Madžar. To dissociate himself from Crnjanski, become member of the Party and have a more positive attitude towards ”minorities”.
How would Ivo, Miloš, Vasko react? Would they retreat into the margins and wait for ”better times”, printing their master pieces on digital and giving them as gifts to friends? Would they make a humble living by overwriting memoirs of written down generals and politicians, making them smart and great? Or would they accept ”the rules of the game”, and become joyful employees of the sorrowful protectorate?
It was never easy to survive as talented, serious and master in this storm. And it has probably never been as difficult as it is today. Leonid Brezhnev said a lot of things in his lifetime, but for one he must be honored: ”Comrades, we must help the talented. The untalented find a way anyhow.”