Warning: re. Pynchon & messages via Jules

[Vaska]

At 10:20 AM 12/4/96 GMT+0200, Craig Clark explains: 
>

>Vaska wrote: 
>   > You might want to know that Radio B92 is the only publisher of
translations
>   > of Pynchon's work that have appeared anywhere on the territory of former
>   > Yugoslavia.  They have now been banned.
>
>I asked:
>   >Does the banning extend to TRP's works? Just curious...
>
>You replied:
>   > No sweetheart: it just means the stuff doesn't get published any more.
>
>Sorry if my question led to any misunderstanding - I wasn't trying to be 
>flippant, and I have been following the B92 story as it breaks in SA 
>(and indeed the story of internal opposition to Milosevic) with 
>considerable interest (the parallels with South Africa are telling).
>
>What I was actually trying to find out was the relationship between 
>the radio station and the act of publication (it's very unusual, in my 
>experience, for radio stations to be involved in publishing), and whether 
>or not the banning extended to any other ventures, such as 
>publication, with which B92 might be involved. Of course if the 
>broadcasts are subsidising the publications, banning the broadcasts 
>serves as a useful way of silencing dissent in printed form...

The question came out of the blue and really threw me for a minute or so: 
that's why I thought you were just being cute.  And, by the way, this came 
after a silly anonymous e-mail that originated from a list member who 
thought I'd flip or something at the idea that Milosevic is the Hitler of 
the 1990s.  That one left me practically speechless: what the @#$%@ does 
s/he think my political sympathies could possibly be!

I don't know the answer to your question.  Radio B92 is something of a 
cultural institution, tiny as it is, and I believe they've even produced a 
film or so.  They're a pretty amazing bunch of guys and gels, and apart from
being Pynchon's publishers (in trans., of course) in FR Yugoslavia, they
also publish-- ready for this?--a feminist literary magazine (Pro 
Femina).  That, too, is a first.  [The Pynchon stuff is one of the books in 
their "Exiles" series: someone on that editorial board obviously shares a 
certain wariness about various structures of power, and a drop of two of 
that zany Pynchonian sense of humour, too: just the other day, one of the 
reporters covering the demonstrations in Belgrade appeared with a doberman
by his side carrying a sign saying: So, you want to mess 'round with B92?]

Right now, they're planning to start a newspaper [more like a broadsheet, I 
suspect] to replace their radio reporting on the demonstrations, etc.  Its 
first issue should be on the streets of Belgrade in a matter of hours.  How 
they do it, how they manage, is something of a miracle.  The 
newspaper/broadsheet will be financed with the money they're getting from 
the Paris based Reporteres sans frontieres (FSR).  Another source of 
funding--but don't quote me on this because I haven't had it confirmed as 
yet--is the Soros Foundation.  So that helps.  


To answer the second part of your question, though: we'll see what the 
government will do about that.  The usual tactic is to make it impossible to 
stay in print or issue anything new by having the state-owned publishing 
houses refuse to print your stuff.  That way, the twirps (no, that's almost 
affectionate, dammit -- the bastards) who are in power don't even have to 
ban you.  A pretty effective way of silencing people, don't you think?


This time, however, it might not work that well. That's what I hope, at 
least.  But I'd better not make any predictions.  Everything is so tenuous 
right now that if I don't hear from B92 for more than 2 hours at a time, I 
begin to fret and ask for immediate e-mail confirmations that their Internet
access has not been cut off as well.  It's touch and go, literally from one
hour to the next.

You're right about the parallels with South Africa.  And you know how long 
*that* took and how much international pressure, sustained, persistent, and 
over how many years was needed before *that* regime finally cracked.  

Thanks for the questions--really.  It's good of you to care.
Vaska

P.S. Sorry about the broken lines: can anyone tell me how to get rid of that
problem?