Quotes from Vampire - Part 4

Neke ideje iz romana Borislava Pekica "Kako upokojiti vampira" - 4. deo; izabrala Ljiljana Pekic

Istorija je zapravo naša adaptacija, adaptacija vrste, na neizvesnost pojedinačne smrti. Istorija je – prema Hegelu – ostvarivanje slovode putem niza uzastopnih ropstava nužnostima.
History is, in fact, our adaptation—adaptation of the species—to the uncertainty of individual death. History is—according to Hegel—the realization of freedom through a series of successive enslavements to necessity.

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Istorija je samo kriminalna priča, snabdevena, da bi se prerušila u nauku, brojnim fusnotama i ibidumima. Sadizam i egzibicionizam u čistom Dijamantu. Paranoje sa referencama na epilepsiju.

History is nothing but a criminal story, supplied—so as to disguise itself as science—with numerous footnotes and ibidums. Sadism and exhibitionism in pure Diamond. Paranoias with references to epilepsy.

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Policija je nešto za šta bi optimista mogao da se uhvati. Ako je u istoriji progres sumnjiv i posledica privida, napredak policijske veštine ne nesumnjiv.

The police are something for an optimist to cling to. If progress in history is doubtful and the product of illusion, the progress of police skill is indisputable.

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Svi konstitucionalni sastojci jednog kriminalno-političkog procesa nalaze se već u prvoj, biblijskoj epizodi čovekove istorije: Zabrana, Pretnja, Zločin, Istraga, Saslušanje, Suđenje i Kazna. 

All the constitutional ingredients of a criminal-political process are already present in the very first, biblical episode of human history: Prohibition, Threat, Crime, Investigation, Interrogation, Trial, and Punishment.

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U životu su mogućna, uprošćeno uzev, dva kraja. Ili se neprimetno gasimo, odumiremo, postepeno padamo u sve niže slojeve misaonosti i sve prostije oblike rečitosti, a odnose sa svetom svodimo na minimum, dok se jednog dana, u svim tim odlikama, toliko od stvarnosti ne udaljimo da nas ona više ne priznaje, ne poznaje niti zapaža naš nestanak. Ili nas, pak, na vrhuncu ekspanzije zadesi nešto što nam jednim udarcem slomi osovinu i izliže kočnice, te nam se kola života munjevito strmoglavljuju u provaliju, raznoseći što im se na putu nađe. 

In life, there are, roughly speaking, two possible ends. Either we fade imperceptibly, wither away, gradually sinking into lower layers of thought and simpler forms of expression, reducing our relations with the world to a minimum, until one day we have so estranged ourselves in all these aspects from reality that it no longer acknowledges us, recognizes us, or even notices our disappearance. Or else, at the height of our expansion, something strikes us that shatters our axis in a single blow and wears out our brakes, so that the cart of life plunges headlong into the abyss, destroying whatever lies in its path.

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Intelektu se ne može osporiti, a da mu se ne povredi osnova i porekne svrha, da se bavi svakim problemom pred koji nas život, postavlja. U strogo filosofskom smislu, za Intelekt nema zabranjenih tema, ni po sebi nemoralnih spekulacija. Nemoralna može biti samo njihova upotreba. 

Mi ne možemo optužiti naučnike za otkrivanje principa pomoću kojih smo napravili atomsku bombu. ne smemo držati da su otkrića na polju eugenike, genetike, neuropsihijatrije i teorijske biologije nemoralna sve dok se putem njih ne počnu preudešavati naši mozgovi, pa i onda tek ako se u nekom negativnom smeru upućuju. 

One cannot deny the intellect—without injuring its very foundation and denying its purpose—the right to concern itself with every problem life places before us. In the strictly philosophical sense, for the Intellect there are no forbidden subjects, no speculations immoral in themselves. Only their use can be immoral. 

We cannot accuse scientists for discovering the principles by which the atomic bomb was made. We must not consider discoveries in the fields of eugenics, genetics, neuropsychiatry, and theoretical biology immoral—until they begin to reconfigure our brains, and even then only if directed toward some negative end.

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Zlo je intelektualna potreba uma koji meditira o dobru. Ne tvrdi se, naravno, da su zlo izmislili intelektualci – mada su neka od najgorih usavršili – ali je izvesno da su ga učinili logički neophodnim u zasnivanju ideje o ma kome boljem svetu. Ideja zla je, čak i prema najprimitivnijem logičaru, nužna da bi se imala predstava o pojmu dobra. 

Evil is an intellectual necessity of a mind meditating on good. It is not claimed, of course, that evil was invented by intellectuals—though some of the worst of it they refined—but it is certain that they made it logically indispensable in the founding of the idea of any better world. The idea of evil is, even for the most primitive logician, necessary in order to conceive the idea of good.

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Dužina ispovesti je obrnuto srazmerna dužini životnog perioda, kojim je inspirisana. Decenije ostaju neobjašnjene, da bi sav prostor ostavile godini do koje nam je stalo. Mahom bez osnova, jer mi uistinu nismo kadri da egzaktno odredimo šta je za nas važno a šta sporedno. Da takvu sposobnost selekcije posedujemo ma u najmanjoj meri, i život bi nam bio bolji. Ne bismo ih trošili na sporednosti. Posvećivali bismo se samo njihovim glavnim tokovima. 

The length of a confession is inversely proportional to the length of the life-period that inspired it. Decades remain unexplained, leaving all space to the one year that matters to us. Mostly without foundation, since we truly are incapable of exactly determining what is important for us and what is secondary. If we possessed such a power of selection, even to the smallest degree, our lives would be better. We would not waste them on trifles. We would devote ourselves only to their main currents.

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Da bi čovek do dna zahvatio život, potreban je izvestan stepen fanatične privrženosti životu; a to isključuje zdravo rasuđivanje o vrednostima. Tako se pun i mudar život nalaze u stanju permanentne protivurečnosti. 

To grasp life to its depths requires a certain degree of fanatical devotion to life; and this excludes sound judgment about values. Thus, a full and wise life exists in a state of permanent contradiction.

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Stvar nije u tome da pronađemo ključ za svoju prošlost, nego da ga nađemo za budućnost. Naš problem nije u tome kako da oživimo nego kako da upokojimo vampire. Prošlost je vampir i pravo je pitanje kako ga upokojiti. A da bi se to postiglo, mora se jednom početi sa ekskretiranjem otrivnog duha iz naših života. 

The point is not to find the key to our past, but to find it for the future. Our problem is not how to revive but how to lay vampires to rest. The past is a vampire, and the real question is how to quiet it. And in order to achieve this, one must at some point begin to excrete the poisonous spirit from our lives.

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San je svakog intelektualca da prestane biti čovek i postane intelektualni čin. 

The dream of every intellectual is to cease being a man and become an intellectual act.

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Vaga mišljenja je nečujna klackalica, koja se večno pomera čas levim čas desnim tasom, levim tasom vere, desnim sumnje, a da jezičak nikad ne pokaže meru i broj. Intelektualna savest to ne bi dopustila. Kad god bi zapretilo da će se pretezanjem vere zaustaviti na nekom delu, na suprotan tas bi se bacila nova sumnja, i kantar bi opet srećno proradio, klateći se u mračnoj neizvesnosti.
A kada bi nagomilana sumnja bila na samoj ivici smrti, navalilo bi se sa verom na naspramni tas i klaćenje duha počelo bi ispočetka. U samoj stvari, postoji strah od dela koliko i smrti kao njegovog potpunog odsustva. Zaključak, ako ne raspolaže protivzaključkom, zahteva čin i vodi delu. A delo je smrt mišljenja. Ko dela, nema vremena za kantare i vage. 

The scale of thought is a silent seesaw, forever tipping first on the left, then on the right pan—on the left pan faith, on the right doubt—without the needle ever showing measure or number. Intellectual conscience would not permit it. Whenever the scale threatened to stop on the side of faith, a new doubt would be thrown on the opposite pan, and the balance would happily resume, swaying in dark uncertainty. 

And when the accumulated doubt was on the verge of death itself, faith would be piled on the opposite pan, and the swinging of the spirit would begin anew. In truth, there exists as much fear of action as of death, which is its total absence. A conclusion, if not accompanied by a counter-conclusion, demands an act and leads to action. But action is the death of thought. Whoever acts has no time for scales and balances.

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Ljudska sloboda je pakao alternativa, dilema i izbora. Prava sloboda je nemati izbora. Pakao nije ništa drugo do apsolutna sloboda, a đavo njen zatočnik još od sukoba sa Bogom. 

Human freedom is the hell of alternatives, dilemmas, and choices. True freedom is to have no choice. Hell is nothing but absolute freedom, and the devil its jailer since the conflict with God.

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Treba gledati pravo. Jer da se htelo gledati iza sebe, dobili bismo oči na potiljku. Treba ljubiti zemlju dece svoje, a ne dedova svojih. Jer čast neće zavisiti od toga odakle dolazimo nego kuda idemo. 

We must look straight ahead. For had we been meant to look back, we would have been given eyes on the backs of our heads. We must love the soil of our children, not of our ancestors. For honor will not depend on where we came from but on where we are going.

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I Bog ima svoj pakao, pa zar je to njegova ljubav prema ljudima! 

God too has his hell—so is that his love for mankind!

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Duhovna načela intelektualca su plod tradicije, koju je sam stvorio u sukobu sa stvarnošću, koju je takođe sam stvorio u težnji da je prevaziđe nekom vernijom projekcijom tih načela. 

The spiritual principles of the intellectual are the fruit of a tradition he himself created in conflict with reality, which he also created in striving to transcend it by a truer projection of those principles.

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Budući da su načela idealna i obrazovana bez ikakvih uslova, osim u duhu, koji im je tvorački sklon, pa prema tome i nepodoban da im se iskreno suprotstavi, ona se razvijaju slobodno i bez kompromisa, usavršavajući svoje forme nezavisno od bilo kakve stvarnosti. Većina filosofskih definica potvrđuje ovu situaciju. Stožerne ideje misaonih sistema mahom su logičke radikalizacije bez ikakve ili sa vrlo malo veze sa realnim iskustvom. 

Since principles are ideal and formed without any conditions other than those of the spirit, which is inclined to create them, and therefore unfit to oppose them sincerely, they develop freely and without compromise, perfecting their forms independently of any reality. Most philosophical definitions confirm this situation. The cardinal ideas of systems of thought are mostly logical radicalizations with no, or very little, relation to real experience.

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Pošto stvarnost nije drugo do sudar oprečnosti, koje se moraju pomiriti da bi ona uopšte egzistirala, svet je samo forma kompromisa; stvarnost i jeste tek skup i niz kompromisa, od kojih inicijalni nosi već poreklom: njena je privremenost samo kompromis između nepostojanja uopšte i večnog postojanja. 

Since reality is nothing but the clash of opposites that must be reconciled in order for it to exist at all, the world is only a form of compromise; reality itself is but a sum and sequence of compromises, of which the initial one it bears from birth: its temporariness is only a compromise between complete nonexistence and eternal existence.

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Naša su rešenja kompromisi između nužde i naše ograničenosti. Filosofija je najpre bila kompromis između teologije i života, a zatim između teologije i nauke. Tradicionalna etika liberalnog društva XIX veka zasnivala se, uz pomoć racionalističke misli, na kompromisu između hrišćanskog morala i načela i kapitalističke ekonomije, između ljubavi prema bližnjem i njenog izrabljivanja. Na istorijskom području kompromis je u krajnjoj konzekvenci, jedini apriori uslov dešavanja. 

Our solutions are compromises between necessity and our limitations. Philosophy was first a compromise between theology and life, and then between theology and science. The traditional ethics of nineteenth-century liberal society were based, with the aid of rationalist thought, on a compromise between Christian morality and principles and capitalist economy—between love for one’s neighbor and his exploitation. In the historical realm, compromise is, in the final consequence, the only a priori condition of events.