Book of Satiricons

Book of Satiricons

Miss Elodie Pinel claims that one can reach Slavko Krunic’s paintings via the faiths of several people who had taken refuge in his workshop during the great flood. Slavko’s paintings were the only place where one could survive.

Working as a maid in his paintings, Miss Pinel carefully controlled any inappropritate content of the sunken world, from entering the picture. As time passed, and the fate of these strange people became more uncertain, the pictures looked more beautiful and comprehensive.

According to the renowned Alexandrian historian and mage, Mr Pljakic, the pictures enjoyed the uncertain and enigmatic fates of their tenants.

Miss Livia, the absent doorkeeper, managed to escape from her cell, and then from herself.

Chinese merchants have seen her in Cappadocia, searching for Slavko's early pictures, but she had forgotten how the pictures look.

The fate of “The Lord of Firm Intentions,” a lawyer and an expert for monitoring duel regularities, may seem tragic, but the relief lies in his passing into eternity with his profession.

Miss Leticia Sforza, of wonderous splendor and gentle serenity, was making a mysterious balm of tranquillity and beauty. Leticia could restore a dry branch to full blossom, she was the bringer of spring and life, but only for a brief moment. Nobody knows how she disappeared, there only remains a portrait which Slavko Krunic painted in secret.

Particular attention must be paid to the knight, born with silver scales all over his body. He spoke eloquently, which shielded his appearance, and no one could suspect that he was actually a taking fish. Everthing on him was dry, except his eyes, from which a large and familiar river started to flow.

Miss Laura, praised with glory and admiration, didn’t know Petrarch. To her, the ever spreading scent of glory was never understandable. A heartless woman, who not once glanced at the poet, lives in a deep forest in northern Italy, and awaits for the one who will set her free from her web of delusion. Fame does not allow her to move into eternity, she is bored and portably still waiting. Slavko Krunic tried to paint warmth into her eyes, but was frozen in doing so.

The Spanish sailor, Raul Albergo, was searching for a land which he called Dulcinea. He sailed dangerous seas, when there was water and when there was none. He especially enjoyed dragging his ship over dry land, much like children drag their carts. Nothing could stop him from sailing. His ship moved through time, as other vehicles moved through space.

Mr Triton, a composer, is histerically running away from the girl he invented.

Mrs Rezonant flees Moscow and the reds, whose ideas she could never understand. She retreats into her imaginary world, visible only to her, and no one will ever understand why she finds refuge there.

Mr Bezuhov, an extraordinary man, and teacher, a dreamer, has a great fear of change and women. Every time he professed his love to a woman, she would marry another. The only solution, thought Bezuhov, is to go to bird regions, and from there dream of travel. Several days later he was found staring at nothing.

The girl of the mandolin wood, Miss Ernestine, mourns her existence, and begs the world to forgive her. Walking in the garden, she would always hear a light tune by Chopin, performed by an unknown musician.

The imagined melody is always more true than the imagined life.

Mr Peter Freeman, a Dutch immigrant willing to be sacrificed for puritan America, discovers his priest's call at the age of 42. Fifteen year prior, he falls in love with a sweet-named street girl: Teresa Ativelt. The girl was arrested and sent to the New World, full of evangelists, convicts, and poor people following their dreams.

Peter never found Teresa. He realised that there is no such thing as human life. Every moment of his life exists, but not life's envisioned wholeness.

Tikalo

Belgrade, 2010.

~The Stories~

Absent Door Keeper

Some used to call her Livia, but her real name no one knew. She would often forget everything,and even on herself, but the story preserved her name. Accidentally she allowed to enemy to come into her church. The stranger presented, the whole city was conquered and the end was inescapable. Being brought to the public court, only what she could say to defend herself against an indictment was: “I thought I pleased him."

As the story says, the accused girl managed to escape from the cell before the sentence was executed. We still don’t know how. On the same day, the stranger has also disappeared from the city. We leave this to sink into oblivion.

Master of Hard Intentions

Somewhere in Prussia (history hasn’t retained in the memory the exact name of the place), at the end of the 19th century, lived a man of law, known as "Lord of good intentions." This "master" had specialized monitoring and regularity of duels, at the end of his juridical studies. As some make themselves as an executioners, "the master" gave himself the task to check the motives of duel, to judge whether they were correct, and to monitor the methods of fight. No one ever knew why he had chosen this profession, which before him even didn’t exist, or who actually he was. One unfortunate participant (shot in the arm) complained about poor arbitration, and also challenged the master. Being given the proper reason for the duel, the master accepted. Being unskilled to weapon, he was immediately killed. His profession disappeared with him.

Season bride

Lady of the noble family from Florence, Leticia Sforza, has been called, by her close relatives, as a “Happy one”. Since early childhood, her natural cheerfulness delighted all around her. As a young lady she was very thoughtful and calm. With one look she could warm the hearts of the sad ones. She was rich, but she showered poor with gifts. She used to listen memories of old people with the same attention as children’s incredible stories. Her gentleness was a balm for the hearts of others, and her look gave such consolation, that people used to say she was some kind of a prophet or Messiah. Her presence shined with a warm light, creating the day. One day she touched a dried branch and when the white buds and little green leaves bloomed, no one has been surprised. People considered her for a mysterious force, priestess of spring and life. Such a glory made her feeling that people always celebrate her own wedding. She disappeared one day, without clue how or why, and the quiet portrait of her was found in her room. It has been exposed in a small church and kept as an icon. People would come to kiss it when they wanted to wake up the power of hope in themselves.

Knight

Monstrosity can be the mother of inventions: in the Middle Age, around the X century, a young man was born, with silvery scales on his body and without neck. He lived locked in the home of his parents. One day he noticed a silver glow of a knight's armor, and immediately decided to flee from the captivity and to travel around the world, presenting himself as a knight. He traveled from country to country, collected a lot of friendships and knowledge, learned over 20 languages and carefully listened the thousands of legends, true and not so true. At the end of his life, when he couldn’t walk anymore, he became the storyteller. While people were listening him, they would forgot his monstrosity. But no one was ever fooled by his lie: the smell, which spread around him, left no doubt about his true nature. When he died, here's what was written on his grave: Here lies the Knight: good storyteller, virtuoso waltz-dancer, a bad liar.

Psychology of growing flowers

A woman called Laura, which was celebrated by Petrarka, had never existed. The one who become generally accepted muse, a woman without heart, surely had nothing with the real person who aroused his powerful feelings. In that time, Petrarka was madly occupied with an idea of love, even in his dreams, so at the end, his Laura finally embodied. A young lady, who played the role of ''the other'', in eyes of others looked just like her famous alter ego. One day she decided not to deny the resemblance, and to accept the destiny of a double. She lived alone in a deep forest in the North of Italy or the South of France; surrounded by laurels. She lived and waited, already forgotten for someone to disabuse her. She is surely still waiting.

Captain Honeymoon

At the end of the XVII century, Spanish sailor Raul Albergo, called Captain Honeymoon, was known as a traveler of the southern seas. He hoped he’ll find his own terra incognita. Captain used to call this land- Dulcinea, but he has never found her. As a time was passing by, fury occupied him and turned this dreamer into a violent and bitter man. Changed by years and disappointments, he was abandoned even by his crew. Alcohol destroyed his mind and he became insane. His sail, now without a captain, wanders on the dangerous seas, and sailors sometimes say they see its shade, far away – like a ghost. Those who have seen his boat at the moonlight, read this name on the side: Dulcinea. What the captain was searching for, was simply under his feet.

Girl from Techna

We recently discovered certain remains of the Biblical city of Babylon in the south of Palestine, but it's story is a little different from that in the Bible. The abandoned city of Techna had an advanced civilization in the X century B.C., known for its foreign language learning system. What happened is that Techna, which made people better understand each other, lost its status because of greed of some of the inhabitants. Techna residents wanted to get as much money as foreign students and decided to increase accommodation and food prices. The first one who came to this idea was the daughter of one of the taxmen (we do not know her name), known for all kind of scams and huge vanity. The city became very expensive and students stopped coming. The innkeepers died rich, but lonely and unhappy. It is said that even a Techna girl forgot her own language over the years.

Triton the composer

The German composer Josef Boch, the lord of Lord Byron (with whom, among other things, he had nothing in common, except perhaps narcissism), always believed that he was someone else. He called himself Tritone, according to the type of music of three tones, which he, in his own words, invented (but to this day no musical pieces have been found.) He also considered himself a successful seducer. He left his native Germany, "cold and foal" according to him, and went to Italy. He settled in Venice and started seducing a young nun from Saint Joseph's Monastery. A poor girl never responded to a letter, but his persistence was enough to ruin her reputation. The girl's father, terrified, demanded that the seducer be deported. Tritone then moved to Tuscany and dedicated the rest of his life to telling the story of his "heroic" history, which he himself considered it to be, to the city's inhabitants and travelers. Once, when he was about to tell the story of his romantic adventures for thousandth time, a woman from the crowd who listened, stopped him and said, "I know, I was that girl." Stroked by this commentary, the composer turned around and ran off. He never again told his story.

Resonanta

In February 1917. 22-year-old Natasha left Moscow. She was a young singer who was fleeing from the reds, whose ideas she couldn’t understand. Grew up in famous family and conducted by artistic ideals from early youth, Natasha used to keep herself far from politics. Her husband was a wealthy industrialist who convinced her that they should escape. But they didn’t progress much: they hid on cousin’s farm in Ukraine, and put farmer clothes on in order to escape death, as they assumed it certain. Many years has passed since then. Natasha has pretended to be someone else for long time that she completely forgot who she was. One day she is not sure has she always been a soprano or a farmer daughter. During the 1935th Dmitry joined to the Soviet bureaucracy and little by little returned their previous style of life. There was no need to go on pretending that she was a peasant. No need to watch hens or goats. But she kept on sowing imaginary grain to imaginary hens, behind the high fence of her property, and to look after invisible goats with Dora, her dog. Invisible animals would gather around the fence, which didn’t exist. At the same time, when the Party members were invited to dinner, Natasha would remember how one opera singer behaves and she would surprise the guests with an improvised aria... But every morning, sadly and inaudibly she watched her imaginary world she only sees, and no one will ever understand why she took refuge in that world.

Mr. Bezuhov

Mr.Bezuhov has always been an exceptional man. When he was a child he was good at school and at home, and as a grown man he always received the greatest awards. He worked with boundless will and attention, and never got angry at anyone or imposed his will. But he often remained alone, aside, dreaming. He worked as an honest teacher holding private lessons. That profession was very popular in Europe in the XVIII century. But he lacked strength for traveling. He was afraid of change, as well of women. He never dared to say any ambiguous word to girl he wanted to seduce. Logically, some other guy would marry her instead. Depressed, Isac Bezuhov chose as a remedy to leave the native country He prepared everything for a long trip and left in carriage through the hills and mountains. He was seen how he gets off, saying he would rather continue on foot. He was found two days later, five miles away. He was looking at nothing, dreaming about traveling.

Mandala tree girl

Her name was Ernestine. Young and shy, she often felt sad for her own existence and asked the world to forgive her. She was servant from her early youth. After a long trip around England, she returned in her native country. She has worked there for the pianist, who noticed her interest for music and wanted to teach her piano. On this way, the pianist wanted to write down his method "how to learn to play a piano" and to make music approachable to everyone. This trip was a paradise: considered as a real lady she had right to read, to sleep, to eat, and to walk through the garden all afternoon long. Maybe she began to feel some kind of tenderness for her benefactor; maybe he began to feel the same kind of sweet affection for her. We will never know that. All we can say is: when pianist's mother returned from a trip to French relatives, Ernestina’s been fired and sent back to France. For several weeks, she lived as the one she wanted to be. She discovered the look of happiness. What she kept from this exile was hope, and what she’s often been thinking about was memory of the affectionate Chopin melody played on her departure by the lonesome musician.

Coordinator of suspicion

Peter Freeman discovered his religious vocation when he was already 42. Was there any other choice for Dutch immigrant, ready to give his life for the Puritan America? During the 1842. in the West, people were infected with "gold fever," but Peter was shy and lonesome young man. Fifteen years ago, he felt in love with a street girl near Amsterdam channels. The girl was arrested, imprisoned and sent to this New World, full of evangelists, convicts, poor people who followed their dreams and miserable girls just like her. When he heard what had happened, he didn’t think twice: he left his quiet life and straight away started to search for the lady of a too short night. In America, he named himself with a name that symbolizes liberty he was looking for: Freeman. The girl probably did the same, because in the city of New Amsterdam, he found no one with the sweet name Teresa Attevelt. After exhausting fifteen years of searching he decided to become a priest. Gradually he closed windows of all his hopes, except one: possible reunion with this girl, and taking her out from a misery. As a priest he listened parishioners' stories, street girls’ confessions, seeking in every girl the one he wanted to marry.