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| Vec se i prije su se mogli osjetiti nedostaci Ministarstva vanjskih poslova, ali nikada toliko kao sada. Postojanje Dubrovacke Republike bilo je temeljeno na jakom izaslanstvu Dubrovnika u svim drzavama koje te pracenju opcih dogadjaja, posebno u Europi. Makar mala Republika je izdrzala sve do Napoleona koji je donio militantnu diktaturu cijeloj Europi i time zaustavio razvitak slobodarskih drzava. Hrvatski interes prema vanjskom svijetu trebao bi biti prema svim malim drzava, a posebno onim najranjivijim drzavama-otocima, kao sto je spomenuta Irska,te Island i Malte U tim sustavima mogla bi se naci uspjesna rijesenja postojanja i jacanja drzavnih gospodarstva ne samo za Hrvatsku u svom kontinentalnom sustavu, nego jos veca korist za hrvatske otoke. Kazu da su te drzave-otoci posebno osjetljivi na promjene u svjetskim okvirima, da nalaze brza rijesenja i da imaju neprestanu krivulju gospodarskog rasta. U sklop tih drzava mogu se ubrojiti Korzika, Azori, i jos neki otoci na Atlantiku, koji postoje i zive kao otoci-drzave. Dakako, da bi saznanja o tim otocima morao najprije doci od Ministarstva vanjskih poslova, strucnih sveucilisnih institucija, a i hrvatski mediji mogli imati zadatak pracenja i obavijestavanja o tim drustvima. Nista od toga. U Hrvatskoj se jos uvijek izmislja topla voda, a poticaji na takva razmisljanja bivaju grubo odbijena. Jos uvijek se traze uzori u velikim drzavama, u zemljama koje ne mogu sluziti kao primjer jednoj 4,5-miljuntnoj Republici Hrvatskoj. Istina, ostaje nada da ce pedantni M. Papic, ako i nepovezan s ikakvom sadasnjom hrvatskom institucijom, doprinjeti proucavanju malih drzava i traziti rijesenja za sto dulji i bolji opstanak hrvatske drzave. U tom smislu predlazem i poticem i same clanove Amaca neka citaju, objavljuju karakteristike o tim drzavama i otocima, sto bi pomoglo dobivanja potpunije slike s temom "Kako pomoci Hrvatskoj". Drago Geoheli distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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| Greetings my friends! Some news for you: www.antegotovia.com has been set up to discuss General Gotovina, the war etc. Give the address to anyone who is curious for Croatian views of such matters. It has already made the news in tommorrow's papers Observe: Gotovina U Vecernjem Yes, that is me! Brian distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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| From today's NY Times. John Kraljic February 6, 2002 COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE Designed to Stand Out in a Crowd By JOHN HOLUSHA The builders and operators of the new Westin Hotel, which is scheduled to open this November at Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street in Manhattan, wanted to draw attention to the building. So they commissioned the Miami firm of Arquitectonica to design a building that would cry look at me even over the profusion of brightly lighted signs in Times Square. The firm responded with a design for a 45-story tower enclosed in multicolored glass and split top to bottom by a curving beam of light that appears to burst into the sky. The eye catching facade design presented difficult engineering problems for Tishman Realty and Construction, the developer and owner of the $300 million 860-room hotel. It will be operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the real estate investment trust that owns the Westin, W and Sheraton brands. In most modern construction, the outer walls bear no weight and are simply attached to the steel or reinforced concrete structure of the building. These curtain walls are there to keep the heat and air-conditioning in and the weather out. They also establish the look of the building. Because of the curves on the north and south facades and the selection of multiple colors of glass, very few of the aluminum-encased glass panels are alike, complicating both the manufacture of the facade and its installation. "In a typical building you will have about 50 different types of panels," said David Horowitz, a Tishman vice president who is overseeing construction of the hotel. "Here we had 1,200 to 1,300 unique panel types." The facade of the Westin hotel being built at 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue poses special engineering problems. To handle the project, which is now nearing completion, Tishman assembled a multinational group of designers and fabricators to come up with a skin for the building that met the architect's design requirements and could still keep out the wind and the rain of the worst storm that would be likely in a century. Beginning in early 1998, Viracon, a glass manufacturer based in Owatonna, Minn., sent dozens of samples of glass to Arquitectonica, which selected 10 base colors: copper, gold, bronze, orange, white, silver, violet, green, blue and aqua. Viracon would ultimately produce 8,000 glass sheets in those colors, and in clear glass panels, for the 184,000-square-foot outer wall of the hotel. Then, as usual, the architects turned their conceptual designs over to an engineering company to figure out how to build the panels. The company selected was Permasteelisa Cladding Technologies, a company in Northern Italy with an assembly plant in Windsor, Conn. The outer frames of the panels were designed to hold a clear inner pane of glass and a colored outer one separated by five-eighths of an inch of air space for insulation.Once the design was completed and approved, the frames were formed by extrusion, in which aluminum alloy is driven through a die with great force to form the desired shape. Because of the complexity of the project, each piece of the facade, including the glass, was marked with a bar code to help workers with the assembly. Once formed, the frame pieces were sent to a painting specialist in the Netherlands to receive a highly durable coating of sliver or copper color, depending on its position in the facade. (The project was actually even more international than it appears, Mr. Horowitz said - the engineering team was mostly Croatian.) Once formed, painted and cut to length and machined, the parts were crated and shipped to the plant in Windsor where they were assembled into panels and the glass installed. Most of the panels are about 5 feet wide but the height ranges from 9 to 18 feet, depending on the floor where they are to be installed. Attaching the panels to the concrete structure of the building involved advanced planning. Before pouring each floor, crews embedded U-shaped metal channels that will be held in place by the hardened concrete. Metal anchor plates are bolted to the channels and then the panels are set onto clips attached to the anchor plates. Permasteelisa's crews began installing the facade in mid-May last year and reached the 45th floor by December. Installation of levels above the 45th floor is expected to take several months longer because of the difficult logistics of lifting the panels from the 45th floor to higher levels of the building. The elaborate facade is limited to the tower part of the project. The low-rise part of the hotel, which is above Tishman's existing E Walk entertainment, retail and restaurant complex on 42nd Street, will have metal facade panels that will present a smooth aluminum face to the exterior, interrupted by square windows. This lower part of the building runs from the 5th floor to the 17th floor of the main building along Eighth Avenue. It was originally designed to be operated by a separate company and to be aimed at leisure travelers and families, as distinct from the business travelers more typical of Westin's guests, but it is now fully integrated with the hotel. There will be internal access from the 200,000-square-foot E Walk complex to the hotel - officially the Westin New York at Times Square. distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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| I wanted to share 2 good things with people which appeared in recent American magazine. Travel & Leisure had a cover story on the 50 most romantic hotels in the world. In light of the general poor quality of hotels in Croatia, I was surprised to read that the Hotel Korcula in Korcula made the list (no photos though). The March issue of Esquire magazine features Goran Visnjic on its cover and a small but good story about him. John Kraljic distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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| Mr. Martin Sletzinger Director East European Studies Woodrow Wilson Center Washington, D.C. 20523 Dear Sir: It is rather appalling to see so much false information coming from a history professor. I am referring to the article "The Fear of Islam in Croatian Politics" by professor Marko Prelec. He mentions the Balkan war of 1912-13 as "a war of South Slavs with the element of explicitly racial hatred of Islamic Albanians" and Islam in general. The war was not waged by "South Slavs", by which he would have to include Croats and Slovenes. The war was waged by Serbia and its ally Greece against Bulgaria, a Slav nation. They took and divided among them Macedonia which was part of Bulgaria. Croats and Slovenes were at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and had nothing to do with that war. In fact, Islam hating was not particularly long lasting in Croatia after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Professor Prelec seems to arrive at his opinions from strictly the Serb point of view, such as writing that "the Balkan wars taught the South Slavs the political technique used in 1990: the tarring of European Great Power perfidy". Croatians always considered themselves Central Europeans and putting them into the Balkans since they became part of Yugoslavia/Serbia was not to their liking, as can be seen even to this day. It should be pointed out here that on May 4th, 1919 at the Paris peace conference, the Croatian Parliament submitted a petition to President Wilson calling for an independent Croatia. It was relying on President Wilson's famed Fourteen Points, calling for "the freest opportunity of autonomous development for the nations of Austria Hungary and "international guarantees of independence and territorial integrity". The petition was ignored. Furthermore, Croats never perceived themselves as identical parts of a single national community with the Serbs, as Mr. Prelec writes. Again, this view is strictly the Serb one, as Serbs tried to convince Croats that they and Serbs are one and the same. Serbs subjugated Croats by every means possible, even changing the name of the country from "The Kingdom of Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia" to "Yugoslavia" and the language to "Serbo-Croatian" which never existed before. Let me assure you that even after 72 years they never succeeded Serbianizing Croatia, but they did succeed advancing their point of view in the rest of the world, since they held all the power and with it all the strength of propaganda. I would hope that well-known Studies Centers such as yours would in the future contact Croatian historians for a Croatian point of view and a true picture of Croatia. Sincerely, Hilda M. Foley Media relations National Federation of Croatian Americans Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| According to US Magazine, issue 366, February 18, 2002 Arnold Schwarzenegger will visit Bosnia. "Arnold Schwarzenegger is a real trouper. The "Collateral Damage" star will fly to Bosnia on February 9 to be with U.S. and allied forces. Although the army had arranged for Schwarzenegger, 54, to stay in a luxury suite in Bosnia's only five-star hotel, the Terminator insisted on bunking with the soldiers in the barracks. Schwarzenegger tells US magazine: "I don't want any special treatment. I want to be with the soldiers, spend the weekend participating in their drills and activities on the base - not just entertain them for an hour." During his two-day tour, Schwarzenegger will get up early for training exercises, ride with soldiers in tanks, shoot an M-I6 rifle simulator, fly in a Black Hawk helicopter and, perhaps most dangerously, eat in the mess hall." Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| This is a press release for The Pharos Cantors from a French label ARCANA that will make world distribution for a new release of "Following The Cross". This letter will go to every distributor in the world. best,Nenad Following the Cross First, a bit of geography. The island of Hvar is located off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, opposite the city of Split. Fairly narrow (5-11 km in width) and 89 kilometers long, it is renowned for its sunshine * a local hotel tradition offers free bed and board to any visitor who finds himself detained on account of snow or fog *, its limpid waters, some of the clearest in all of Europe, and the warm welcome of its inhabitants. The city of Hvar is the main city, but Stari Grad, owing to its ancient status as the island's capital, has maintained an important role, perhaps more revealing of local habits and customs. Next, a bit of history. Inhabited since prehistoric times, the island of Hvar was peopled by the Illyrians, then the Greeks and Romans, be-fore coming under several centuries of domination by Byzantium, Venice and the Austrian Empire, successively. For seven years * during the Napoleonic conquests * it was French. Thus the city of Stari Grad arose on the site where the Greeks had founded Pharos, in 385 BC, and the huge fort that overlooks the city of Hvar was built by the French emperor. Thanks to its insular position, it remained outside the combat zones during the war of conquest declared by the Serbs at the moment of the independence of Croatia. These considerations are useful in understanding that this is a place of ancient civilization, boasting a glorious past in terms of architecture, literature, painting and music. We will also point out that it was in Hvar that the first municipal theater known in Europe was built in 1612. In 1510, the inhabitants of Stari Grad rose up against the nobility of the city of Hvar. The Holy Week procession was one of repentance and became a tradition. Taking place every year during the week before Easter, in Stari Grad and the neighboring villages, the custom has endured up until the present day. Organized by a local religious congregation, the clergy does not participate. Glagolitic chants, in the vernacular, come from the oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation. Under the name of THE PHAROS' CANTORS are grouped the cantors of the Church of Saint Stephen in Stari Grad and the Secular Cantors of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vrbanj. All the members practice secular professions the rest of the year, and their membership in the choir is a manifestation of their faith. Thus, this is a folk custom integrated into its local social context. What is striking, on first hearing, is the quality of the voices, the accuracy and precision of the ensembles, as well as the fervor, narrative tone and force of expression. There emanates a great intensity which even the most uninformed listener cannot ignore. The character of this music is absolutely unique, comparable to nothing else: the psalmodies of the Lamentations of the Virgin Mary, with their extensive silences, linked to the realistic crackling of the Crucifixion, for instance, attest to the music's harmonic and incantatory force. It remains to be hoped that the success to which THE PHAROS' CANTORS are unavoidably destined * they have already subjugated New York, London and Paris * will not overly de-nature them. They must, with the same fervor, the same purity and the same authenticity, continue the artistic heritage of the rich * and as yet unknown * repertoire of the island of Hvar. distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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| http://hometown.aol.com/vgoss/ugh.htm Globalna Hrvatska Answer to Cultural Neglect A Citizens Association Globalna Hrvatska (Global Croatia) held its Founding Assembly in Zagreb on January 20, 2002. The Association (Udruga Gradjana = NGO) was initiated by Lilijana Domic, top Croatian art and literary critic and gallerist, and a major poet, and by Dr. Vladimir P. Goss, Croatian-American writer, journalist and art history professor. Among founding members are Professor Vladimir Malekovic, Director of the Arts and Crafts Museum of Zagreb, painter Miroslav Sutej, Croatian-American painter Marko Spalatin, Professor Dr. Zlatko Juric of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Art Academy, Judge Edward Damich, Court of Federal Claims, Washington, Professor Silvija Letica, head of the Education Department of the Croatian Heritage Foundation (Matica hrvatskih iseljenika), Ms. Visnja Boras Bedenko, Architect, Member of the City of Zagreb Preservation of Monuments Office, Dr. Nenad Vidovic, a well-known Zagreb attorney. According to the By-Laws, the Association is a voluntary form of citiz ens’ association created in order to stimulate, promote and implement cooperation between Croatia and the Croats abroad, which together constitute Global Croatia, in the fields of art and culture, and in related areas of mutual interest. The stated goals of the Association are to stimulate, promote, organize, improve and implement cooperation in the field of art and culture (and in related areas) between the Homeland and the Croats abroad, i.e., within Global Croatia, which is comprised of the constitutional homelands of the Croatian people, the Republics of Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Croatian communities around the world; to bring about better mutual understanding between the Croatian people at home and the Croatian communities abroad, and to support good and fruitful relationship in particular in the fields of culture and the arts by spreading information and supporting education on all levels in order to improve the knowledge of Croatian culture, and to advocate a global approach to Croatian studies. The Association will carry out its activities in a spirit of mutual creative cooperation, partnership, and respect within Global Croatia. It will sponsor and promote such activities as exhibitions, lectures, round tables, festivals, concerts, performances, readings, symposia, etc., introducing to the Homeland Croatian artists and cultural activists from abroad, as well as promoting Croatian artists and cultural activists abroad, in the countries with substantial Croatian communities, or in any country which is interested in the type of activity offered by the Association. The Association will also seek membership for Croatian artists and cultural activists from abroad in Croatian professional organizations and institutions, and vice versa. It will promote virtual links within Global Croatia by the way of the Internet. It will strongly advocate spreading knowledge of Global Croatian culture by encouraging programs of studies at the institutions of high and higher learning, as well as education of the media, both at home and abroad. It intends to create a publication program, and a library including electronic media. Membership in Global Croatia is open to individuals and legal entities both in Croatia and abroad, as long as they accept the By-Laws of the Association. Annual membership fee is a voluntary contribution. Why Global Croatia? According to the initiators, there is a state of insufficient knowledge, not to say of total ignorance, in Croatia concerning the art of the Croats abroad. And just in Chile there are 150 published writers of Croatian origin. In Argentina, Carmen Verlichak has claimed a major literary prize. So also have Josip Novakovich, Mary Helen Stefaniak, Melissa Milich, Anthony Mlikotin, Alain Horic in the US or Canada; or Amelia Batistich in New Zealand. Marko Spalatin is recognized as one of the top US painters of today. So also is Anton Cetin in Canada; and Charles Bilich in the Pacific region. Until recently there was no systematic program of exhibitions of Croatian artists from abroad in Croatia. Not until one such program was proposed and initiated by the founders of the Association. Croatian writers from abroad have beendenied membership in Croatian writers associations. On the other hand, there are many outstanding Croatian artists and other cultural activists who need to be introduced to the world. Recently a top US institution proposed to fund a major exhibition of Croatian painting in the US there were no takers in Croatia to act as partners. All this, in our opinion, constitutes a major case of cultural neglect, and Global Croatia hopes to remedy the situation. Wonders of Croatian culture are still insufficiently known, both inside and outside Croatia. The fact that there exists a Global Croatian culture is a concept shared by just a few both at home and abroad. Please join us in our effort to promote some of the best aspects of Croatia’s past and present. Accept this as our cordial invitation to join. Vladimir P. Goss vgoss@aol.com 919-732-7576 (in the US) 091-503-0117 (in Croatia) distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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| AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSIP NOVAKOVICH By Katarina Tepesh On April 16th, 2002 at 6:30 PM Josip Novakovich will give a reading at the New York Public Library and autograph his books. Josip Novakovich is the author of "Apricots From Chernobyl", a collection of essays, and the short story collection "Yolk", both published in '95, and "Salvation and Other Disasters", published in '98. His writing textbooks "Fiction Writer's Workshop" and "Writing Fiction Step by Step," published in '95 and '98 by Story Press, were Quality Paperback Club selections. He is co-editor of "Stories in the Stepmother Tongue," published by White Pine Press in 2000. His novel, Poppy Slopes, will be published by Ediciones Destino in Spain this spring, in the Spanish translation. A collection of essays is coming out this fall from the White Pine Press, entitled "Countries Without Borders". Josip Novakovich was born on April 30, 1956, in Daruvar, in the region of Slavonia, Croatia, where he completed his secondary education. He studied Medicine in Novi Sad, 1975-76 and arrived in the US at the age of twenty, in 1976. Studying Psychology, he received a B.A. in '78 from Vassar. He continued his studies at Yale, in Philosophy and Theology, 1978-82, finishing with the title Master of Divinity; in 1988 he received an M.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He taught Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati and he is currently an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the Penn State University. He was awarded a long list of outstanding literary awards and fellowships, among others, three Pushcart Prizes, Best American Poetry 1997, the Whiting Writers' Award, Ingram Merrill Award, the Richard Margolis Prize for Socially Important Writings, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (one for the year 2002) in fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Vogelstein fellowship, and a 1999 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation (for "Salvation and Other Disasters"). KT What readers like best about your award-winning writing is the diversity in the style of writing, positive and negative experiences, encouraging and demoralizing ones, uplifting and depressing. JN I hope they do-I need a variety in writing just like in music. An allegro movement asks for adagio, adago for andante or allegro vivace. After some tragedy, humor comes easily; after humor, strangely enough, depression; many humorists are highly depressed. KT It's totally amazing that you arrived from Croatia at the age of twenty and now you are recognized among the best to teach Americans how to write the art of fiction. Your piece is included in "The Best Writing on Writing" JN To me it's not amazing. Writing is storytelling no matter in what language, and leaving one culture for another only gives you more stories to tell and more perspectives from which to tell them, so you can certainly use that stance of relativity to examine what goes on with us when we tell stories. KT In your books, stories and essays, you really covered our Croatian experiences from practically every angle. You touch on the W.W.II turbulent history of Home Guards, Ustashe, Chetniks, partisans, communists, etc. and especially the more recent attack by Serbs. You offer readers an important perspective: your view on how and why Yugoslavia split apart. Slavonia was especially hard hit. Vukovar, Pakrac, Osijek. You also write about Srebrenica, Sarajevo, etc. JN Yes, I go into history and the current affairs to tell the stories partly because I can't simply read and talk and remain passive about what's going on. I am not a historian on the other hand, so I write fiction, personal essays, reflections, opinions, and I grapple with our difficult history as best I can, and when I get tired of it, I write in the absurdist fashion, to change the mood. Sometimes I joke that I am a war profiteer: I have many stories to tell now. KT You did not shy away from grim subjects like rape, forced prostitution, adultery, TB, hepatitis, post-traumatic stress syndrome, etc. JN Story telling is like medicine: there is very little to do with a healthy man in a medical office and a lot with a sick one. What would doctors be without disease, and story tellers without problems? Or to put it differently, there is no math without a problem, the unknown which a mathematician may try to figure out through the known factors. There's a negative dialectic at play here-the bigger the problems, the more games to play. KT Your writing is about ordinary people, as well as famous names like Drazen Petrovic, Cibona from Zagreb? JN I write about all sorts of people, mostly unknown, and occasionally I stray and mention someone well known. For a while I dabbled in journalism, so I interviewed, for example, the emaciated Croatian Zeus, Ivanisevic, but I haven't used him in fiction. In a story, I caricature Mladic. KT In "Apricots from Chernobyl" you wrote hilarious "Rock: Twenty Years After" about your teenage years. And you also wrote a number of other, pl ayful and candid stories about growing up in Croatia. JN Sure. While I was there, our experiences seemed to me to be banal and dreary, but when I got to the States, they appeared fresh and original-worth recalling and lionizing. KT In your writing you often touch on religion? JN Inevitable in my case since I grew up in a religious family, and until the age of 18, I was a firm believer, a Baptist. Even later I went through a theological phase and got a Master of Divinity at Yale, to understand religious experiences. KT Humor! One of the most appealing aspects of your writing. Your piece is included in "How To Write Funny". Your humorous writings on the absurdity of our society, especially coming of age in a repressive former Yugoslavia. JN I think many things from our country and region, even if described realistically, turn out to be funny. Kafka from Prague, raised in Austro-Hungarian Empire, with different layers of bureaucracy, foreign and domestic, appears to be an absurdist humorist even when he is almost realistic. Our realism can be surrealism viewed from elsewhere. KT In the book "Yolk" your fourth story is called "Apple" and its about your fathers death described in great detail. JN Yes, that could just as well be a memoir, but I wrote it thinking I was writing a story. That was the only way I could at the time approach the event. When I began writing, that was the story I wanted to tell most, but I avoided it for a long time; I wrote around my father's death until I could face it. After reading "The Death of Ivan Illych" by Tolstoy, I decided I must write; the story stirred me because for me it echoed my father's death. KT In "Rings and Crucifixes" you address the question, "When would Croatia select skillful and eloquent diplomats, ministers, presidents?" JN I write that in 1992/3, at the height of Croatian diplomatic ineptitude. It was painful to watch PBS and listen to NPR-Bosnian Muslims had brilliant representatives in Sacerby (even if he turned out to be a crook later on) and others; Serbs had good representation, but who could speak up for the Croatians? Those who could, weren't invited by the Tudjman team, and there was such a prejudice against Croatia in the media here that nobody in fact wanted a Croatian voice. It was a frustrating time. KT Equally important, you described Serbs for who they really are. It would serve us Croatians well to see that more people read your books. JN Well, what are Serbs like? You tell me. I don't know, after all. I don't know what any nation is like. I hate generalizing about peoples. I am reading history now, and in the beginning of the century, Serbs were mostly Croatian friends, manipulated by Austria to fight against each other so Austria could snatch BiH. We don't need to keep up the divido et impera animosities that were cast upon us from the outside. We have to rise above that if we don't want to be manipulated and ruled. At the moment Croatia has few friends. We need to learn how to get along with everybody, not how to quarrel with everybody, and that includes Serbia and Serbs. Serbia is Croatia's potential economic partner. Who else are we going to export our goods to? We can't only import, or we will become like Argentina, or we are already a banana Argentina. Times have changed, war is over, we got to be constructive. If we did not have Serbs to blame, we would blame Herzegovinians, or Dalmatians, or Slavonians-we know how to be divided even among ourselves. That leads nowhere. KT In some of your writing you portray yourself something of a rebel. Is this the case in real life as well? JN Yes, I am an anarchist, deep down. I suppose most Croats are, simply because we were ruled from the outside, against our interests, so it is natural for us to mistrust any government. But that is a dangerous trait, which is liable to make us passive and cynical rather than constructive participants in democracy building. Democracy after all should be possible even in Croatia. (OK, I said I would not generalize about peoples, but this one, I think, is a pretty safe generalization, that Croatians have an anarchistic national trait.) KT You co-edited "Stories in the Stepmother Tongue" JN Emigration, with the gain of spatial and cultural distance, helps many writers to put their old experiences into perspective - or even to realize that their observations and memories from their home are worthwhile story materials. KT Do you foresee teaching online? Or Croatians specifically? JN We are doing this interview on-line, so obviously, anything is possible online. But I don't want to teach online, least of all Croatians. Nobody is a prophet at home, and I don't even want to try to teach Croatians. In Croatia, many people are conceited, believing that writing is a God-given talent, and there's nothing to do then with a bunch of geniuses. Writing, however, is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration, as the saying goes, and there is certainly a lot of groundwork one can do to learn how to write well, how to work with the word. I have no intention of preaching writing, however. KT If you did not have to teach for a living, would you still do it? JN Yes, but much less than I do. One course a year, and one summer seminar would do. Right now I have been invited to teach at workshops in Kenya, Russia, and Fiji, summer and winter. Tempting, but detrimental to my own writing time. Go for example to www.sumlitsem.com and you will see the Russian conference, where I have been teaching for years, every June. KT Since you wrote "Fiction Writer's Workshop" and "Writing Fiction Step by Step" how does that work in your classroom? JN It's helpful to have the books; I have always been sloppy with my lecture notes, but here they are, perfectly organized, so even if I am sleepy and scatter-brained occasionally, the students see the books, and don't lose the faith in me, and so I can relax. KT Fiction writing vs. memoirs? JN To me it's all the same; sometimes I start writing what appears to be a memoir but I change so much and invent that I realize I am writing fiction; other times, the reverse. I have a fancy plot, but I realize that I am putting in real people whom I know, and then I say, forget the fiction, and write an essay or memoir based on these people. KT When you traveled to Croatia in '92, did you take notes? JN Just a little. I did not have journalist credentials, so I wasn't allowed into refugee camps near Vukovar and Vinkovci. I did write about it from memory. KT Any hobbies and/or interests besides your family, writing and teaching? JN I used to play chess and tennis. I enjoy classical music, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Bartok, Straviinsky. KT Who were or are your role models? JN Dostoyevski, Mark Twain-used to be. KT Favorite book? JN Histories by Heredotus, Dead Souls by Gogol, Brothers K. KT Which aspect of the Croatian culture do you like best? JN Conversation. Our people can talk all night long. KT Your opinion on the Croatian literature? JN Well, it's a rich and varied literature. I don't have one opinion on it, but many. However, I must admit that as I was growing up I deliberately avoided anything which was not translated: I wanted to flee from Croatia and Yugoslavia through the world of imagination, and so I happily read everybody else but us. I still have not made up for the sins of my youthful lack of patriotism. KT Your present work on Croatian and Slovene immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century? JN I am writing a novel based on the history-and it's taking me more effort to piece the history together than I had expected. Eventually, I will say, the hell with it, let me just write it. That is why there is fiction: you imagine what you don't now, and even what you know, to understand it, you must imagine what it's like to be in someone else's shoes, skin. KT What was the reaction from your family, after you wrote about all of them at some point in your books? JN Less positive than the reactions of total strangers. In Iran, for example, where a magazine published several of my stories and a lengthy interview, 220 readers wrote to the editor in praise of my work. I don't think that could happen in Croatia, for me. KT What is your philosophy in life? JN That would take too long to elucidate. I used to have clear philosophies, I even studied philosophy for the Ph.D. at Yale but luckily dropped out. Now I am not sure I love philosophy that much-not that it's become a misosophy, but I am skeptical about what abstractions can do. KT You accomplished a lot so far, what about your future plans? JN I have not accomplished nearly enough. I plan to write more and better. We'll see. In 2000 a translation of a number of Novakovich stories, mostly from the "Salvation and Other Disasters" appeared in Zagreb entitled "Grimizne Usne," which won the Kozarac Award at the Vinkovacke Jeseni Festival in Vinkovci for the best prose book by a Slavonian writer in the year 2000. Currently he is a writing fellow of the New York Public Library. He is working on a book on Croatian and Slovene immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century. His short stories and essays have appeared in the O.Henry Awards anthology, The New York Times Magazine, the LA Times, Paris Review, European Magazine, Jutarnji List, Threepenny Review, and other anthologies and journals. In March, the New York Times will print his travel story on the island of Hvar, and in May, the National Public Radio will broadcast his story, "Whale's Throat," in the Selected Shorts Series. distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. |
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