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It may be that West is such a superbly self-confident writer that there is not a lot one can do with it apart from marvel. I haven't read it for at least 15 years, and can't find my copy (early edition, two volumes), which is a pity. But I do remember not just the grand set-pieces, like the visit of the Turkish envoys to Sarajevo, the Montenegrin track that would have led them to their doom; the sacrifice of the lamb, and perhaps the central horror of the book, Gerda grabbing the bowl of eggs at the Easter Service. In which she proves her unfitness for the world of art and the world of myth. But also little scenes and phrases that have stayed with me: the drunken officer 'with his legs at the other end of the world' while someone tenderly holds his head while he's being sick into the gutter; 'the dusty, fly-blown waking dream of Turkey-in-Europe'. I love it and if I can't find it then I shall have to get another copy. I's not really a travelogue, either, more an enormous vehicle for her world-view. I do know that she was actually planning to set it in Finland first, and had even started leaning Finnish, but got sent to YU for a book tour or or something, and fell in love. And fell out of love after the war, when Tito took over. The fact that it was banned there for ethno-nationalism and didn't get translated and published in full until 2004 might also have had something to do with it And Constantine was definitely Stanislav Vinaver, who was a parodist, poet and translator, and an actually important figure at the time. Here's the cover of his 1922 Nova Pantologija Pelengirike, which I suppose you might translate as A New Pantsology, which is full of parodies of poets and novelists of the time, none of which I can really understand almost a century later and not being a native speaker.
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May 20, 2020 14:26
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Oh, and it's pretty much accepted that she was having an affair with Vinaver on at least one of the three trips she made to write the book. So Gerda/Ilsa's foulness might not be quite as simple as represented. There are also bits when she simply betrays her ignorance, as when she builds a complaint about failure to understand foreign languages by Brits when she is at the Trepča mine in Kosovo, and she sees a sign saying Stanterg, which she interprets as a misreading of Stari Trg (Old Market). But Stantėrg is the Albanian name for Trepča. And the almost total absence of Albanians in the book apart from flower sellers, sweetmeat makers and people luxuriously resting in the shade is weird too. I may be wrong on the precise details, as this is all from memory, but I will say that it's a book that stays with you for a very long time.
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May 21, 2020 23:22
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Hmm. But an improvement on previous travellers: from Through Savage Europe by Harry de Windt, a former British officer visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1905 or 6. At this time Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied by Austria-Hungary, and we all know how well that turned out. edit: someone help me with the picture pls sitnalisa fucked around with this message at 17:00 on May 29, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 15:59
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Thank you! fixed.
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May 29, 2020 17:01
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