Милорад Павич: балканские притчи
Milorad Pavic: Balkan Parables

go further you might be able to see something in those eyes that will
allow you to look deeper into the character and feelings of their owner.
But that’s nothing for Pavic, that doesn’t even interest him; this is how
he looks at it:
“Her left eye was at least a thousand years older than her right one”
This is a full strike; I stop reading and stare at the ceiling while the
cold chill in the stomach goes up my spine and flies out from my wide
open eyes. I’m not trying to copy Pavic here, all I’m trying to say is
that when you read his texts, you inevitably start looking at the world
through his eyes – the magic of his words is too powerful, it cannot be
overlooked or distracted from by a mere blink.
If we go back to the last example and try to understand the roots of
its immense power, we will see that it lies in symbolism. It’s one of the
secrets of Pavic’s word magic – he manages to turn every small element
into a symbol. He studies every detail in such depth and dedication that
it becomes clear – any object in this world holds a much deeper mean-
ing than what we make out of it. a lot of people, who are trying to follow
the philosophy of Buddhists, look for the “universe trapped in a grain
of sand”, but Pavic doesn’t just look for it – he finds it! It won’t be an
exaggeration to say that his entire prose is one big symbolism.
“And she didn’t use her knife, the one in shape of a fish”
(What was he trying to say exactly – that paganism is stronger than Chris-
tianity? Everybody knows that fish – is the symbol of early Christians.)
This symbolic approach of his also spreads on to people. Here is an
example from “last love in Constantinople”
Lieutenant Opuic had an unfortunate accident: his penis, having
taken uprising position once, never abandoned it. Lieutenant continued
living his life and doing heroic acts in the state of permanent excitement
ready for procreation.
at first sight everything is clear and not that amusing – the person
is suffering from a certain physical malfunction. But not in the world
of Pavic. Why? Because our cunning Serb is putting completely dif-
ferent meaning into this seemingly obvious situation. He implies
something far more profound and even tragic: the symbol of person’s
eternal dissatisfaction and as a result his curse for eternal search. This
could be compared to the act of moving forward but not because you
are driven by curiosity and thirst for adventures but because any pause
will result in falling, any delay or complete stop turn into death. In-
stead of physical illness of the body we now see emotional illness of
the soul doomed to do what it doesn’t even want to do, follow the road
knowing well that it will lead to hell.
– Which path is the right one, father? – he finally asked, – How will
I find it among the others?
– If you move in the direction that increases your fear – you are on
the right path. And may God guide you.
It becomes clear that if Pavic pays such close attention to little de-
tails, he will pay even closer attention to the actual person and his char-
acter going back dozens of generations to find the roots of it. He will
listen carefully to feelings and emotions and will find the origins in the
sources that have been neglected and have long been forgotten by our
civilization. Tell me, what can be older than the ability to see and hear?
according to Pavic – the ability to smell. Every big novel of his has a
hero in it who possesses an exceptional sense of smell. I’m sure you all
immediately thought of “The Perfume” and the fact that Suskind had
already successfully and fully exhausted this topic, but I would like to
prove you wrong! The difference between the senses of smell of their
austrian and our Serb is in the actual approach. While Suskind seems
to have “discovered” his gift and have used it to build genius yet rather
straightforward novel, where his hero’s ability to smell was a result of
nature’s caprice that turned into a curse deciding his faith (who knows
maybe Suskind himself got frightened by the demon he managed to
bring to life through paper and ink and that is why he doesn’t seem to
be eager to go back to this topic), Pavic, on the other hand, goes around
constantly “sniffing” the world like a hound.
His descriptions of scents and the actual ability to smell are fright-
ening and entrancing at the same time; they open the reader’s eyes to
the world far more profound than the one he can “see” with his eyes.
In his books, the sense of smell is not a demon but a loyal, powerful
and wise sorcerer’s apprentice. Such an “assistant” can only be harmful
in the hands of an amateur, and truth be told Pavic had never made a
mistake of giving this gift to an amateur. He treats the sense of smell
as an essential component of entire Magic of Nature and as oppose to
Suskind doesn’t imply that it could be just one of the demon’s faces.
“With her acute sense of smell she knew right away that I had
forgoten to bring my notes”
Since we started the whole discussion about the role of humanity in
Pavic’s books, we should ask ourselves a question: what is the human
being and humanity as a whole according to Pavic? Everything that
I’m going to share with you right now is based solemnly on my recol-
lections and ideas and by no means should be taken as an objective
answer to the question. However I do believe that my point of view
is not that far from the truth and therefore I would like to share it
with you. I believe that our literary sorcerer implies that the notion
of a human being is not exactly what we used to think it is. a person
is generally much deeper, puzzling and unpredictable, and as a result
– more real than it might appear at first sight. Pavic is trying to get to
us the idea that knowing and understanding our pagan roots will give
us strength and right direction for the search of evolution not just for
civilization in general but for every single individual separately. He is
trying to say that we all have god drifting inside of every one of us. I
don’t know how about you, but I understand him completely.
His text, his palette of words, images and imagination in any of his
“Balkan Parables” surpasses “Thousand and one nights”, the philo-
sophical depth of his work reached beyond Borges and overshadowed
all modern mystical, esoteric and surrealistic works of other writers.
To read or not to read – that is my question and your decision. I per-
sonally have entered Pavic in my liber omnes Harires with a golden
font. I am positive that his name will keep causing the same ecstatic
feeling in many generations of readers ahead.

P.S. The order in which I recommend to read Pavic (with brief comments):
1. Last Love in Constantinople
2. Khazar’s Dictionary
3. Landscape Painted with Tea
4. A Box for Writing Materials
5. Iron Curtain – collection of short stories and essays. Very inter-
esting, puzzling and often confusing (which is expected – Pavic has
always been hovering in the upper spheres)
6. Unique Item – a great book written in the form of a suspense
story with the elements of mysticism. unfortunately the book is not
finished, it stops right where the final punch line of the story is sup-
posed to be…Pavic, good old hooligan is offering his readers to finish
the story themselves. Personally I think it’s too much, but I’m sure he
wouldn’t care what I think anyway.

Translated by: Anastassia Pronsky-Stojanovic