One of the stuff that itches like doing here in sarajevo is OldBookGuided*. (Being guided by an old city guide book.)
To begin with, went into my fave bookshop come cafe:
Bookstan/buy-books.
Popped the question.
There are no such books!
Why? How come?
They were all burned during the war.
That war again?
Curious how an event – Wars, I think, qualify as Events? – that occurred in the 90’s, ended over 20 years ago, everyone seems to agree was a mistake – is something i keep bumping into.
Makes me contemplate the 2nd war generation in britain and the fact that relatively to here, there aren’t as many and and prominent memorials.
Do they feel neglected?
Maybe relieved that memories are not made to flash back at them and define future generations?
Maybe its a question of individual and specific group memories, rather than national memories that are easier to deal with?
Maybe war memories are treated like a tight upper lip? Bite and get on with it?
Indeed, perhaps opening and expressing is important in and of itself – however what happens when the expression inevitably allows laying the war’s ghost and become its’ own monster?
Like an old guidebook?
*
OldBookGuided
Using an old guidebook to go around a city. Searching from differences
between expectations, the places in the book and how they are encountered.