Literary discussion with the famous Serbian writer Vladimir Arsenijević was held on Friday in the Ceremonial Hall of the National Library “Đurđe Crnojević” in Cetinje.
This famous writer addressed the Cetinje audience by telling details from his life. In teenage days, then as a fifteen-year-old, he began to practice music because he thought that at that time that the only way for grow prosperous is through the rebellion of society. However, later he realized that the exit from frustration, apart from music, can be found in writing, and that the language has strong power.
“You do not need anything to write. In writing you are alone. Everything you achieve is related to you – every success and failure” – Arsenijević started his story.
He says for himself that he had too ambitious intentions. He wanted to write a European novel, and he himself was not aware of the value of his first novel “In the Hold” at the time he wrote it.
The aforementioned novel is the story of a young man from Belgrade from the beginning of the nineties, written in the first person, for which Arsenijević has received the NIN Award.
“I was not even aware of the value of my first novel. The whole situation was difficult for me. War and death … I found myself in situation in which I no longer had anyone to hang out with. In my directory with phone numbers and addresses there were more and more crossed names. They were dead, the war took them”, he recalled.
After being accepted by literary critics and upon translation of his first novel into many languages, Arsenijević was expected to write another novel, also war subjected.
“My novel was interesting to people, because of the current political situation in the country at the time, as it would now be interesting for us to read the work written by a young Syrian writer that would show us both sides of the war in his country” said Arsenijević and added that pressure on him to write another book, after the unexpected success of the first, has largely disturbed him.
He wrote the novel “Anđela”, with which he was by no means satisfied.
“War is literally easy to use, it looks kind of cheap, I wanted to get out of that experience”, he explained.
The writer has received a call from the International Parliament of Writers to spend some time in Mexico, which he accepted, because by his departure he would manage to overcome the feeling of immediate proximity to the war. He wanted to describe the natural beauty of Mexico in the next book, however, as he himself says – he failed.
“I opened the notebook and began to take notes of everything that had happened since the third day of the bombing, so that the diary was filled with notes for almost two months, until I arrived in Mexico. If there is something I wrote for reasons that are not literary, then this is this book, because by writing these lines I tried to preserve some state of internal equilibrium. However, the encounter with the Albanian writer from Kosovo, Dževdet Bajraj who, also at the invitation of the Parliament of Writers, arrived a little later in Mexico City, changed the original concept of the diary.”
Since he was not pleased with the novel “Anđela” from the beginning, 20 years later the author wrote a remake of the book under the new title “You and I, Anđela”.
“I added about hundred pages, dropped some chapters, but I left the same characters and their tragic life story. We are witnesses that the circumstances have not changed much. Dissatisfaction in some situations is good, but it’s not good to be proud of. The borders are narrowed and the man is in a situation in which he only wants a little peace for himself, his family and friends”, he concluded.
In addition to the above-mentioned books, this author wrote an illustrated novel “Išmail”, then the novels “Predator” and “Flight”, illustrated novel “One Minute – Around the World in 60 Seconds”, a collection of tales “This is Not a Happy Place”, as well as a collection of essays “Yugolaboratory”. He launched the publishing company “Rende” in which he worked as an editor until 2007. He is the founder of the regional literary festival “Krokodil” and the publishing company for audio books “Reflektor”.
He was born in Pula in 1965, lives and works in Belgrade.
The librarian of the National Library Branka Kaluđerović spoke with Arsenijević about his entire creative work.
Literary discussion with the famous Serbian writer Vladimir Arsenijević was held on Friday in the Ceremonial Hall of the National Library “Đurđe Crnojević” in Cetinje.
This famous writer addressed the Cetinje audience by telling details from his life. In teenage days, then as a fifteen-year-old, he began to practice music because he thought that at that time that the only way for grow prosperous is through the rebellion of society. However, later he realized that the exit from frustration, apart from music, can be found in writing, and that the language has strong power.
“You do not need anything to write. In writing you are alone. Everything you achieve is related to you – every success and failure” – Arsenijević started his story.
He says for himself that he had too ambitious intentions. He wanted to write a European novel, and he himself was not aware of the value of his first novel “In the Hold” at the time he wrote it.
The aforementioned novel is the story of a young man from Belgrade from the beginning of the nineties, written in the first person, for which Arsenijević has received the NIN Award.
“I was not even aware of the value of my first novel. The whole situation was difficult for me. War and death … I found myself in situation in which I no longer had anyone to hang out with. In my directory with phone numbers and addresses there were more and more crossed names. They were dead, the war took them”, he recalled.
After being accepted by literary critics and upon translation of his first novel into many languages, Arsenijević was expected to write another novel, also war subjected.
“My novel was interesting to people, because of the current political situation in the country at the time, as it would now be interesting for us to read the work written by a young Syrian writer that would show us both sides of the war in his country” said Arsenijević and added that pressure on him to write another book, after the unexpected success of the first, has largely disturbed him.
He wrote the novel “Anđela”, with which he was by no means satisfied.
“War is literally easy to use, it looks kind of cheap, I wanted to get out of that experience”, he explained.
The writer has received a call from the International Parliament of Writers to spend some time in Mexico, which he accepted, because by his departure he would manage to overcome the feeling of immediate proximity to the war. He wanted to describe the natural beauty of Mexico in the next book, however, as he himself says – he failed.
“I opened the notebook and began to take notes of everything that had happened since the third day of the bombing, so that the diary was filled with notes for almost two months, until I arrived in Mexico. If there is something I wrote for reasons that are not literary, then this is this book, because by writing these lines I tried to preserve some state of internal equilibrium. However, the encounter with the Albanian writer from Kosovo, Dževdet Bajraj who, also at the invitation of the Parliament of Writers, arrived a little later in Mexico City, changed the original concept of the diary.”
Since he was not pleased with the novel “Anđela” from the beginning, 20 years later the author wrote a remake of the book under the new title “You and I, Anđela”.
“I added about hundred pages, dropped some chapters, but I left the same characters and their tragic life story. We are witnesses that the circumstances have not changed much. Dissatisfaction in some situations is good, but it’s not good to be proud of. The borders are narrowed and the man is in a situation in which he only wants a little peace for himself, his family and friends”, he concluded.
In addition to the above-mentioned books, this author wrote an illustrated novel “Išmail”, then the novels “Predator” and “Flight”, illustrated novel “One Minute – Around the World in 60 Seconds”, a collection of tales “This is Not a Happy Place”, as well as a collection of essays “Yugolaboratory”. He launched the publishing company “Rende” in which he worked as an editor until 2007. He is the founder of the regional literary festival “Krokodil” and the publishing company for audio books “Reflektor”.
He was born in Pula in 1965, lives and works in Belgrade.
The librarian of the National Library Branka Kaluđerović spoke with Arsenijević about his entire creative work.