English

Even a good fiddler wouldn’t help here: How Juan discovered he was his own uncle

Foto: Skupština Crne Gore

By Andrej Nikolaidis, CdM columnist

Imagine that you are reading a book or watching a series with the following plot.

Milo ruled for 30 years. They overthrew him by having everyone unite against him: the Russians and the Americans and the Europeans and Risto and Vucic, who really liked Milo. Well, Milo is succeeded by Foolish Zdravko, who tells the people that with the power of faith, he can move mountains. So Zdravko was defeated by Dritan, who together with Zdravko defeated Milo. And Milo, to overthrow Zdravko, supported Dritan, who overthrew him, and then he overthrew Dritan. Mickey came, who was overthrown by Vucic before that, thanks to the citizenship issue, so Jakov became the president. Then Mickey beat Jakov in the game. Jakov went into an alliance with Dritan, he got a chance to overthrow Mickey in Podgorica, but he couldn’t, because Vucic threatened to overthrow him. So Jakov, without Dritan, left with Mickey. But he said the worst about Mickey. Mickey brought to power in a NATO country the Front that hates NATO and loves Putin. Then Front punched Mickey from the inside for a knockdown.

Milo’s DPS would join a coalition with Mickey, and maybe even with the Front, with which the minorities who were previously in love with Milo are now in love. In addition to the minorities, who are loving and compassionate, so they can be with everyone, there are also Democrats in Mickey’s government, who were once in a coalition with Dritan, but were also against Dritan. Mickey is not doing well, and Milo returns. He used to bring investors who were spat on by Mickey and Jakov and Front and Democrats and Dritan, who went to Dubai and was delighted, but now exclaims “Ulcinj will never be Dubai”. Now some investors have been attacked by Mickey, but Dritan and Jakov and part of the Front and part of the minorities are spitting on them, although Milo is not spitting on them.

If this was the plot of the book you were reading or the movie you were watching, wouldn’t you say: Oh, that’s too much?

Isn’t this similar to those South American soap operas in which Juan, in episode 478, learns that he is his own uncle, after he is deceived by Esmeralda, who was deceived by Octavio before, because he found out about Juan, whom Esmeralda did not hide so much because of Octavio, but because of his relationship with Aureliano, who is Juan’s uncle’s brother, and Octavio’s cousin, whose cousins ​​shot at Octavio when his daughter took that drug across the border, which is why they all, the whole family, were put under surveillance by Inspector Claudio, who fell in love with Esmeralda, but she didn’t want to be with him, because she also loved Juan and Octavio and Aureliano, as well as Diego, which wounded Claudio in the heart, so he sought comfort in the arms of Sofia, whose godmothers are with the Diegos, but all that has nothing to do, because the series is not about that, but about the fight of small farmers against “Monsanto” and of their genetically modified potato seed?

Our reality, then, would be the trash of a novel. It is, by the way, the trash of reality. The question is: why does what would be a sloppy fantasy function as hard reality?

Because, unlike reality, literature must make sense. Fiction is an all-pervading structure: in this sense, literature is the ultimate art. For this reason, fiction is always political – even when, or should we say “especially when” it claims to be apolitical. Fiction always disseminates ideology.

It’s about this. Not only is history a fiction, but our memory is also structured as a fiction. Our memories are a literary form. When things happen, we see them as swirling chaos, as a series of events that seem to be arbitrary, as if there is no clear connection between them. In memory, however, everything is always coherent, harmonious and with a clear cause-and-effect relationship. Remembering means putting everything in its place. It means filling in gaps in memory, gaps in meaning with imagination. That’s why people often talk about a “better past”. No: the past was not better. It is only better now, after we have exposed it to the action of fiction. There is no present that a good fiddler would not turn into a bright past.

Therefore, there is no reason to worry. That’s right, everything is disgusting – all these things that are happening to us are unbearable. But, for consolation… If I remember correctly, there is a scene in “Two and a Half Men” in which the stupid brother of the character played by Charlie Sheen seduces a miserable woman and takes her to bed. This was the worst sex of my life, she tells him. He, satisfied with his performance as a lover, answered calmly: Don’t worry, it will be better when you remember this in ten years.

(Columnists’ opinions and views are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)

Send this to a friend