PUBLISHING WITH THE SMELL OF BEER

AIM, Skopje, September 28, 1995

Between 500 and 600 titles are annually published in Macedonia, but for this activity, this fact may not be a reflection of the true situation.

"Anything is possible with Skopje beer". This advertising slogan of the aggressive and efficient campaign of Skopje brewery is lately acquiring the following supplement: "...even publishing of this book". This is the best illustration of the evident fact that one of the most profitable economic enterprises has become the greatest patron of the arts, although it also offers the opportunity to local cynics to joke on account of the propagandist message which literally recommends a book along with beer. In Macedonia, it is indeed almost impossible to publish a manuscript without an abundant support of this or similar sponsors, and any conversation about this subject necessarily invites scornful resentment on the one, and on the other hand panegyrics on the era which has 'finally brought about prevalence of market mechanisms' even in the sphere of culture, although it is difficult to find convincing evidence for such a conclusion, since there is still a huge and even growing disproportion between published and sold (read) books.

According to several sources, between 5 and 6 hundred titles of original and translated literature are published annually in Macedonia, which is an enviable figure even for much more prosperous and better developed cultural environments. Equally as the fact that there are about 260 Macedonians with a legitimate right to present themselves as writers, since that is how many of them possess membership cards of the Society of Professional Writers of Macedonia. A certain number of them should be added to this figure, because there are those who do not possess this document, but believe that they have a much more tangible evidence of their profession than the mentioned piece of paper. Unfortunately, though, this is a sphere where mere quantifications cannot be a reliable indicator of true accomplishments. All things considered, the number of published titles and the number of authors per (literate) capita hardly reflect the actual situation and they are rather a product of an unnatural disharmony between needs and possibilities and wooing personal and national vanities.

Gligor Stojkovski also contemplates along these lines, and since he is a respected poet of the middle generation and the editor of the culture column in the national daily Nova Makedonija he can certainly be considered as a highly competent interlocutor concerning this issue. He expresses fear that unmanageable scribblers will completely take control over Macedonian literature if nothing changes. "Much more is published now than it used to be", Stojkovski says, "but these are mostly books of poor, I should say minimum aesthetic value. The state either has no money or it has lost all interest in culture, so manuscripts can be published only if the author has connections with private publishers or among directors of respectable enterprises, in other words if he finds a publisher on his own. This means that the authors who belong to the so-called first league, like Solev, Boskovska, Urosevic, Matevski, to mention just a few, have very difficult time publishing anything, since their dignity does not allow them to walk around asking for money. Even if they do publish something, it is only thanks to making great concessions concerning their own fees. It might sound as an anecdote, but Slavko Janevski, obviously the most significant author in this space, for as many as eight books managed to collect just enough money to buy a thousand Canadian, not American dollars. Nowadays, it is impossible for a poet to write a collection of poems and peacefully wait for the pleasant and festive moment of its publication. A writer, and I mean those who have creative dignity by it, are in a semi- desperate situation now. All that is compromising for real authors".

Being the president of the professional association, Jovan Pavlovski, a writer who is squandering his mature creative years in attacking wind-mills, shares this opinion. "Just imagine, books are made equal to any other goods. That is why there is no control of printing and titles are appearing like mushrooms after rain. Publications are financed by sponsors connected with the so-called authors and there is absolutely no control of the process. Noone controls pulp and kitsch any more. Instead to introduce order into this rush of worthless literature, the competent authorities are granting tax exemptions to this quasi-creativity. Every year we organize a fair of Macedonian books which reflects a trend of complete disintegration of the publishing system, and it is indicative that not a single title has been purchased for the needs of public libraries in the past five years". Aleksandar Prokopiev, a writer of short stories, highly esteemed and greatly demanded in this part of the world, a true representative of Macedonian culture, claims that it hurts him badly not because this society, this state "has anything against me, against the writer, but because it is completely indifferent". This veteran in the struggle for "something new", in favour of alternative trends by vocation, a former musician in the famous band called "Idoli" (Idols), a doctor of sciences and a prolific writer, survives just thanks to working as a radio announcer and occasionally as a musician. Prokopiev claims that nothing has changed in this political environment, except that the job of a writer has become even harder because, due to general poverty, it has become impossible for him to even get paid for what he has already earned. "The whole system of awards, juries, publishing, possibilities of the author to fulfill his ambitions for creative communication, it has all remained unchanged. That is why an author who truly creates feels bad. Really bad".

Majority of interlocutors is dissatisfied with the concern of the state shown for books, but equally with the activities of their professional association. It is true that last year they refused a radical reorganization of the professional association with a large majority of votes. Now a move has been made towards a classical form of a trade-union type of organization, since a wide scope of mutual contacts has been established with highest state officials, and that soon law on culture will be adopted which is expected to introduce some order into this highly delicate activity. It seems, nevertheless, that no administrative and extra-literary measure can be expected to determine what is worth publishing and what is not, where the boundary between worthless pulp and true literature lies. It is the job of literary criticism which practically does not exist here, and which Gligor Stojkovski expects to make "the necessary selection among everything that is written".

For unknown reasons, it was difficult to find an interlocutor who would personally represent the always necessary other party in this profession. They are mostly young authors who suggest that this is a matter of fear of the authors who have become part of the establishment that they might lose the positions they have held so far and undeserved sinecures, but also fear of foundation of a new system of values in conditions in which the total political environment is also changing. After all, perhaps it is not completely unfounded to expect that this, though unselective, "quantity" of titles and authors might be the critical mass which will necessarily result in new processes.

BUDO VUKOBRAT