Outsiderly Fragments
Outsiderly Fragments

Summary/Abstract: "At the end of May 1968 I told my friend, secretary of the magazine Forum, Ivan Krolo, about the idea of writing the Outsiderly Fragments. He at once asked me first of all to offer them to his editorial board. I accepted, and promised that I would hand him the first volume in September. I wrote the text from the middle of July to the end of August, during a holiday in Preko near Zadar. I handed it to Ivan Krolo, as I had promised, in September. But the board rejected the work. The explanation was put off indefinitely. Only two years later did Ivan Krolo tell me, and then without any authorisation, that the editor had considered the writing an anti-communist pamphlet. I was astounded! In the meantime I offered Outsiderly Fragments to the journal Kritika. There too it excited a real storm in the board. At the end, the editor, Vlatko Pavelic, published it, overriding one veto. I could not have supposed that the fate of Outsiderly Fragments would be so agitated right from the beginning. As soon as the first volume appeared in public, I experienced a very different but equally lively and characteristic evaluation of the text. By chance I met a longterm friend, a woman who had studied with me. She told me with indignation that the Outsiderly Fragments were a cynical provocation. When I asked why, she raised her voice in contempt and said: Why do you still play the hero, and we all know that you have got your back well covered. You play with others’ fates, push others into disaster... No, you are not either naïve or crazy. But we too are not so naïve or uninformed. This lady colleague was deeply offended, disappointed, disgusted. And it was not just her. I was stunned, and I felt completely lost. But it turned out that what had at first glance seemed cynical was in fact mad and costly. Seven years later, this friend of mine, hugging me in emotion after my first sentence, whispered to me: Sorry, we just did not recognise..." (Vlado Gotovac)

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