The narrative is set at the end of 1992 in Belgrade under sanctions with student demonstrations against the government and its
The narrative is set at the end of 1992 in Belgrade under sanctions, with student demonstrations against the government and its policies. As he blamed the Communists for blocking the development of civil society, so he blamed the present Serbian nationalist forces for a return to a false ideal of a "folksy" culture.More than this, in his last novel, Ubistvo s predumisljajem ("Premeditated Murder", 1993), he presents the irrationality of the present wars. He sees this vision destroyed by the arrival of the Communists in whose collectivist ideology there is no room for the kind of individual integrity on which his characters construct their goals.In the last few years he witnessed the re-emergence of similar powers in his native country. His works present the need to confront the truth of history and to build an honest patriotism which respects the patriotism of others. They are caught between the European future and the weight of the Balkan past, trying to balance them. Describing the fabric of Serbian society before the Second World War he painted a picture of a fledgling democracy struggling to emerge in Europe and leave behind the legacy of Balkan primitivism.
His Belgrade of the 1920s and 1930s is a city in development. Paved streets are taking the place of mud and cobblestones, while men educated in Western universities are striving to replace the notional myths of the largely peasant population by more rational ways of thinking. Always a realist, both by intellectual constitution and in his narrative designs, he never lost sight in his fictional world of the fact that these changes are difficult; and his characters frequently bear the imprint of two worlds. His chief preoccupation concerned the coming to power of the Communists in 1945 and their destruction of the economic, political and cultural life of his country. Slobodan Selenic was one of the greatest literary talents in Serbia of recent times. His novels such as Prijatelji ("The Friends") and Ocevi i oci ("Fathers and Forefathers") and plays such as Ruzenje naroda ("Spiting the Nation") and Knez Pavle ("Prince Paul") have dominated the last 15 years in Belgrade.
Perhaps a gallows humour was indeed the best armour against despair.. For all concerned it seemed a matter of business as usual, conducted without hard feelings. Knowing well how unlikely improvement is, all parties seemed wary of moralising. The friends, relatives and children of the men drifted into court and gathered round them, all smiling and apparently as relaxed as if they had been at a christening.The sentence duly delivered, the smiling continued as the police amiably gathered up their charges. So why not get them young, and offer support while there's still time? Fine, but modern child-orientated legislation prohibits just the kind of contact which might help most.As the court and the accused waited for the return of the magistrates with the sentence, a curious scene unfolded.
Non-custodial punishment has a recidivism rate close to that of the custodial option. Oh, but surely "confronting offending behaviour" would be hard work for the violent, and very useful? My informant politely poured scorn on this. He said that the few people who are willing to confront their bad behaviour are already halfway to resolving their problems, and that counselling just bounces off the rest. Yet I doubt that the public will accept the non-custodial option which the probation service rightly offers unless his sort of voice is more widely heard.The facts are, after all, not cheering.
"People choose", he said, and one heard echoes of the Tory dictum: "Crime is a decision, not a disease." No doubt I have cherry-picked amongst his views. He disliked the view that violence was rooted in family origins. He said, sharply, that he was no sort of social worker, but an officer of the court. One said that he wasn't keen on violent men being given help with their self-esteem: "God, they've got too much self-esteem already, that's their problem," he said. This implies you'd first have to demolish their iron cockiness before you could tackle what indeed may be a gnawing sense of inferiority.I teased the other probation officer about being a liberal of the worst kind. I bet social workers have been in and out of these men's homes, and that much more support would have been seen by the taxpayer as throwing good money after bad, just as much less would have seemed social, and moral, carelessness.I have been impressed by two experienced probation service workers that I met last week. So I am drawn to the argument that Something New Ought To Be Done But then I wearily put the opposite case.