Anja Zidar o zbirki kratkih zgodb Trznil je, odprla je oko

Zbirka kratkih zgodb Trznil je, odprla je oko je drzen poskus žanrskega prehajanja kratke v dolgo formo. Prek vsebinske razdelave odnosa med vnukinjo in dedkom, ki preči več časovnih obdobij in več tem, ji namreč uspe ustvariti učinkovite kratke zgodbe, ki skozi zbirko dobivajo drugačne perspektive, tako da hkrati obstajajo same zase in kot nekakšne stopnje v dlje trajajočem časovnem obdobju. S tem zbirka Trznil je, odprla je oko poudari zlasti etično dimenzijo spomina in preteklosti: nobeno dejanje se ne zgodi v vakuumu, ampak je del širšega zaporedja.

Pripovedi v zbirki se gibajo med kratko zgodbo in novelo. Od slednje se odmikajo, ker umanjka dramaturški lok, od kratkih zgodb pa zato, da so konci prej pomirljivi kot presenetljivi. Zgodbe imajo v naslovu predmet ali prislov, ki pa ne napoveduje teme zgodbe in tudi ne skriva globljega pomena (kot pri noveli), temveč je namenjen nekakšni ozemljitvi posamezne zgodbe. Naslov prve zgodbe je recimo »Zamrzovalna skrinja«, pri čemer resda slednje tvorijo površinski incipit v kontekstu medsosedskih sporov, a dogajanje se loteva vprašanja mladosti in mladostnih odločitev,  ki so sprejete z bolj in manj racionalnim premislekom. V tej zgodbi prihaja do kontrastiranja sedanjosti in preteklosti, pri čemer je druga učiteljica za prvo, njene lekcije pa niso vedno jasne. Podobno je tudi v kratki zgodbi »Na sledi«. Zdi se torej, da je v ozadju ideja o zgodovini kot učiteljici življenja, ki pa v primeru zbirke ni »obešena« na abstraktne vrednote, temveč na dogajanje.

Osrednje dogajanje tvorita dedek in vnukinja skozi življenje: v ospredju niso epohalni javni dogodki, temveč vsakodnevni, zasebni dogodki, pri čemer gledišče niha od dedkovega do vnukinjinega. Eden izmed takih dogodkov je recimo letovanje na Hrvaškem po razpadu Jugoslavije, ki skozi lik babe sere, ki pred straniščem oponaša motiv Marijinega vnebovzetja za vojake, povzame vso bedo dejanskega razpada. Skorajda komično pa deluje zgodba »Utrinki«, kjer osnovno sceno predstavlja družinski piknik ob rojstnem dnevu: vsebuje namreč tako opravljanje (predvsem »nategunskih« lastnikov lokacije piknika), dolgotrajno skupinsko peko mesa (kot skupinsko je seveda mišljena zgolj moška skupina gostov) in zgražanje nad vrednotami mlajše generacije (kratki lasje vnukinje in pivo v njenih rokah proti dolgim lasem in limonadi v rokah njenega bratranca). Z obratom v zasebnost in predvsem vsakdan zgodbe pridobijo na prepričljivosti, zlasti ker so izbrani takšni vsakdanji trenutki, ki imajo velik metatekstualni potencial.

Nadalje je pomembno poudariti, kako je odnos med vnukinjo in dedkom prikazan kot zelo tesen, kar se v največji meri kaže v tem, da med vsemi ljudmi in dogodki, ki so poimenovani, ostajata edina brez imena. Zunanji svet v relaciji do njiju postaja nekakšen Drugi, v katerem se ne želita več udejstvovati. Obenem pa je v njunem odnosu še vedno prisotno nekaj hladnosti: dedek tako ne ve, da vnukinja ponavlja njegovo navado in spi v kleti, a ne zato, ker si to želi, ampak ker nima svojega prebivališča. Podobno tudi dedek ne upa vseh notranjih bolečin izpovedati vnukinji. Vsak na svoj način namreč mislita, da s tem dokazujeta svojo premoč. 

Zgodbe v zbirki pa ne naslavljajo zgolj medgeneracijske solidarnosti oziroma težavnosti le-te oziroma je to kvečjemu v drugem planu. Starostna razplastenost protagonistov v zgodbah namreč omogoča dodaten način raziskovanja tem ljubezni in skupnosti, pri čemer v kratki zgodbi »Služba« nastopi družbeno-kritični moment, v katerem se vnukinja ne sprašuje o smislu mladosti v kapitalizmu in drugih stereotipih, temveč se na svojevrsten etični način loti newagerstva s tem, ko vsakemu dimljenju z žajbljem doda (dobronamerni) nasvet, da so v ozadju verovanja dejanski strahovi in travme posameznikov. Na način je celotna zgodba banalizirana, še toliko bolj, ker gre v primeru newagerstva za kompleksnejši pojav kot zgolj nekaj ljudmi s travmami, »etični« pristop vnukinje pa je še vedno zgolj zavajanje.

Močnejšo tematsko zaslombo ima zbirka v zgodovini. V prvi kratki zgodbi zbirke je to zgodovina druge svetovne vojne, ki je prikazana veliko bolj intimno kot je to pričakovano v slovenski literaturi, v eni izmed kasnejših zgodb »Na sledi« pa se dotakne tudi posledic razpada Jugoslavije, zopet na intimen način, ki se bolj ukvarja s travmami tistih, ki so preživeli, kot z (ne)racionalnimi razlogi, zakaj je prišlo do nečesa. V povezavi s slovensko (pol)preteklo zgodovino sicer premik iz velikih (pol)preteklih zgodb v zasebnost ni nekaj novega, zbirka k temu premiku doda zlasti glas najmlajše generacije, ki nekih zgodovinskih dogodkov zaradi starosti ni zares uzavestila, a je kljub temu še vedno nasilno vpletena v diskusije o njih in prisiljena sprejemati zaključke. Nenavadno je sicer, da zgodovina izstopi zgolj na treh mestih v sami zbirki, vmes pa je fokus vendarle bolj na vsakdanu oziroma na splošnih tropih o razvoju (slovenske) družbe. 

Zbirka kratkih zgodb Trznil je, odprla je oko je kot nekakšen počasen vzpon po spirali sodobne družbe, četudi se zgodbe vzpenjajo, ni velikih zmag in tudi ne hudih porazov. Na nek način bi se lahko zdelo, da se obeta vrnitev k pozitivistični misli o obdelovanju vrta in individualnem razvoju, a s tem, ko protagonista pripadata dvema generacijama in kontekstoma, pokaže na skupnost. Tudi ko odpade en del nje, drug še vedno živi naprej.

Anja Zidar on He Flinched, She Opened Her Eye by Vesna Lemaić

The short story collection Trznil je, odprla je oko (He Flinched, She Opened Her Eye) is a bold attempt at genre-shifting from the short to the long form. Through the thematic elaboration of the relationship between granddaughter and grandfather, which crosses several time periods and several themes, it manages to create effective short stories that take on different perspectives throughout the collection, so that they exist both on their own and as stages in a longer period of time. In this way, the collection He Flinched, She Opened Her Eye emphasises in particular the ethical dimension of memory and the past: no action happens in a vacuum, but is part of a larger sequence.

The tales in the collection range between short story and novella. They diverge from the latter because they lack a dramatic arch, and from the former because the endings are reassuring rather than shocking. The stories have an object or an adverb in the title, which neither indicates the theme of the story, nor hides a deeper meaning (like in a novella), but is intended to ground the story in some way. The title of the first story is, for example, Zamrzovalna skrinja (Deep Freezer), and while it admittedly refers to a superficial incipit in the context of conflicts between neighbours, the action deals with the issues of youth and youthful decisions made with more and less rational reflection. In this story, there is a contrast between the present and the past, with the past being the present’s teacher, whose lessons are not always clear. It is similar in the short story Na sledi (On The Trail). It seems, therefore, that the idea of history as a teacher of life is in the background, but in the case of the short story collection it is not “hung” on abstract values, but on events.

The main event consists of a grandfather and granddaughter through their lives: the focus is not on epochal public events, but on everyday, private events, with the point of view shifting from the grandfather’s to the granddaughter’s. One such event is, for example, a vacation in Croatia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, which sums up the misery of the actual dissolution through the character of the elderly female restroom attendant (TN: In Serbia, they sometimes refer to the elderly female restroom attendant as baba sera. In Serbian, the word baba means grandma and the word sera is derived from the word srati which means to shit) who imitates the motive of the Assumption of Mary for the soldiers in front of the restroom. Almost comical is the story Utrinki (Glimpses), where the basic scene is a family birthday picnic: it contains gossiping (mainly about the “scamming” owners of the picnic site), the group slow roasting of meat (group, of course, means only a group of male guests), and being appalled by the values of the younger generation (granddaughter’s short hair and beer in her hands versus her male cousin’s long hair and lemonade in his hands). By turning to the private and, above all, everyday life, the stories become more convincing, especially as the quotidian moments chosen have great metatextual potential.

Furthermore, it is important to emphasise how the relationship between the granddaughter and the grandfather is portrayed as very close, which is most evident in the fact that, of all the people and events that are named, they are the only ones that go unnamed. The outside world becomes, in relation to them, a sort of Other in which they no longer wish to participate. At the same time, there is still a certain distance in their relationship: the grandfather does not know that his granddaughter is repeating his habit and is sleeping in the basement, not because she wants to, but because she has no place of her own. Similarly, the grandfather does not dare to express all his inner pain to his granddaughter. Each of them, in their own way, thinks that by doing so they are proving their superiority.

The stories in the collection, however, do not only address intergenerational solidarity or its difficulties, but rather this is a secondary concern. The differences in the protagonists’ ages in the stories allows for an additional means of exploring the themes of love and community, and in the short story Služba (Job) there is a socially critical moment in which the granddaughter does not question the purpose of youth in capitalism and other stereotypes, but in a unique ethical way takes on new ageism by adding her (well-intentioned) opinion, every time she smudges apartments with smoke, that behind the beliefs are actual fears and traumas of individuals. In a way, the whole story is trivialised, all the more so because in the case of new ageism, it is a more complex phenomenon than just a few traumatised people, and the granddaughter’s “ethical” approach is still just misleading.

The themes of this short story collection are strongly based in history. The first is about the history of the Second World War, which is depicted in a much more intimate way than is expected in Slovenian literature, and in one of the later stories Na sledi (On The Trail), it also touches on the aftermath of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, again in an intimate way, dealing more with the survivors’ trauma than with the (ir)rational reasons why something happened. While the shift from the great (recent) stories to the private is not new in relation to Slovenia’s (recent) history, the collection adds to this shift in particular the voice of the youngest generation, which has not really come to terms with certain historical events because of its age, but is still forcibly involved in discussions about them and forced to draw conclusions. It is odd that history only comes to the forefront in three places in the collection itself, but along the way the focus is more on the everyday life, or on general tropes about the development of (Slovenian) society.

The short story collection He Flinched, She Opened Her Eye is like a kind of slow climb up the spiral of modern society, but even though the stories climb, there are no great victories and no major defeats. In a way, it could seem that a return to the positivist idea of tending the garden and individual development is on the horizon, but by having the protagonists belong to two generations and contexts, it points to community; even when one part of it falls away, the other still lives on.

Objavo je omogočila Javna agencija za knjigo