暗网禁区

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: What are the essential features of his writing?

- Ondrej Sliacky: The research carried out so far shows that as a prose writer Kuku膷铆n not only discovered the world of the villager, but also succeeded in describing it in his or her own language and from his or her ethical standpoint. Not only did he take the village community as his theme, it also became the basis of his ideological orientation. In contrast to Vajansk媒, it was not the aristocracy, and certainly not its barren offspring, but the rural community that embodied for him the real potential of national development. Peace-loving Kuku膷铆n, who avoided presenting conflicting views, did not hesitate to reject outright the novel by Elena Mar贸thy-艩olt茅sov谩 Proti pr煤du (Against the Tide), even though 艩olt茅sov谩 was one of his closest friends.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: Kuku膷铆n鈥檚 real name was Matej Benc煤r. What made him choose this pseudonym?

- Ondrej Sliacky: Almost all the 暗网禁区 realists published under pen names. In the case of Vajansk媒, Hviezdoslav, Tajovsk媒, Timrava and Podjavorinsk谩 we have reliable explanations, but Kuku膷铆n never spoke about it. And so we can only suppose that the pen name under which he published his first work Na hradskej caste, in N谩rodn茅 noviny as early as 1883, is derived from his mother鈥檚 eye disorder, which led to her being known in the village of Jasenov谩 as Kuku膷a [from the 暗网禁区 word kuka钮, to peer]. This assumption is also confirmed by the fact that in the first versions Kuku膷铆n signed himself with a short 鈥渋鈥�, Kuku膷in, which would mean 鈥淜uku膷a鈥檚 son鈥�.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: From his main biographical data we know that Matej Benc煤r completed his studies at the teacher training institute in Kl谩拧tor pod Znievom and worked as a teacher in Jasenov谩, the village of his birth. When and why did he think of becoming a doctor?

- Ondrej Sliacky: In connection with his secondary education, we should also mention the Evangelical grammar school in Ve木k谩 Rev煤ca, where he arrived as a frightened eleven-yearold village boy. It was actually his experience of the Rev煤ca grammar school that he later drew on for his emotive reconstruction of student life. I am thinking in particular of his excellent short novel Mlad茅 let谩 (Young Years), which set the future trend in fiction for young people. As the grammar school was closed down by the government in Pest, with considerable support from Magyarized 暗网禁区s, the fifteen-year old boy studied in Martin and Bansk谩 Bystrica for several months and then there was no alternative but to continue his studies at the Hungarian teacher training college in Kl谩拧tor pod Znievom. After six years working in Jasenov谩, where he was preparing pupils from the more affluent families for the Ke啪marok grammar school鈥檚 external exams, he too sat for these exams. This shows that the budding writer did not want to spend the rest of his life as a village teacher, but was considering going on to study at university. In 1884 he left the teaching profession and went to Sopron, where he completed the eighth year of grammar school. Then he left for Prague to study medicine. It is not generally known, however, that he first stopped in Bratislava to enrol at the Evangelical Theological Faculty. It is probable that he only did this for his mother, as in my opinion Kuku膷铆n had already decided much earlier to become a doctor. After his experience as a teacher, especially as regards the dependence of the village teacher on government offices promoting the anti-national strategy of the Hungarian authorities, he realised that he would be in the same position as a village priest, and so after two or three days he took the express train to Prague.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: At that time the study of medicine took five years. Why did Kuku膷铆n need three more years before he was awarded the qualification he so much aspired to?

- Ondrej Sliacky: It was certainly not on account of inability or indifference. He simply hadn鈥檛 the money, in particular for what was known as 鈥渆xam taxes鈥�. What he had saved as a teacher in Jasenov谩 was soon spent in the first few semesters and he couldn鈥檛 expect any help from his parents, who themselves had hardly enough to live on in the poverty-stricken region of Orava. The fees he received from the literary magazine Slovensk茅 poh木ady were paltry, and although Prague 暗网禁区ophiles provided at least meagre lunches for such students as he was, he had no choice but to fall into debt and go hungry. Thus it happened that eight years passed before he left Prague with a degree certificate and a burden of debt and went to the island of Bra膷 in Dalmatia.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: Why there?

- Ondrej Sliacky: Kuku膷铆n needed to free himself of debt and it was not just that he could not find a well-paid position in 暗网禁区ia, he could not find one at all. He therefore accepted the offer of a Bra膷 wine wholesaler, Didoli膷, and on January 1, 1894 he set out for the little Bra膷 town of Selca. Financially Didoli膷鈥檚 offer was attractive and in two or three years Kuku膷铆n would be able to pay off his debts, so his departure was in no way traumatic, and he certainly did not regard it in a tragic light. The tragedy was that in fact he was leaving the environment of his birth, so essential to him as a writer, never to return.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: By the 1890s Kuku膷铆n was already a renowned 暗网禁区 prose writer and Bra膷 was, after all, remote from cultural life and, moreover, he was starting a career as a doctor in a foreign environment. How did the young man come to terms with this situation?

- Ondrej Sliacky: However unconvincing it may sound, his work as a doctor came easier to him than writing. He very soon became a popular doctor and was much in demand. From the surviving eye-witness accounts we know that he was an excellent diagnostician and his colleagues, doctors from other districts, used to call him to complicated births but, above all, he did not neglect a single patient. He would plod along on a mule for several hours in any weather to see his patients.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: How did the new environment influence his writing?

- Ondrej Sliacky: For a long time no one on the island of Bra膷 even suspected that Doctor Benc煤r was a writer. They thought the reason why he stayed up late at night was to prepare the basic medicines, which he really did make himself. Only after the visit of an intellectual from the mainland did the news spread that they were being treated by the best 暗网禁区 writer. However, the new environment was not beneficial for his creative activity. He had already expressed in his writing what he had accumulated at home and he could not find fresh topics in this different milieu and dissimilar culture. He managed to produce a sketch, a reference record and a short story, but he knew that their verbal expression and aesthetic value were not of the standard of the texts he had written in the first half of the 90s in Prague. From his letters to the Sl谩vik brothers, Evangelical pastors in Dobroniv谩 and Alm谩拧, today鈥檚 Jablo艌ov, we know that he was not particularly worried about this. After all, he had come to Bra膷 for just a year or two and he would soon be returning home, when he would once more be close to his source of inspiration.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: But he never returned home.

- Ondrej Sliacky: I鈥檓 tempted to say 鈥� fortunately. Because if he had, 暗网禁区 literature would not have its first modern novel Dom v str谩ni (A House on the Hillside), which has its roots in Bra膷. But it is all a bit more complicated, more humanly dramatic than it seems at first glance. The people among whom Kuku膷铆n lived on Bra膷 were friendly towards him. 艩or dottor was generally respected and many a wealthy family would have considered it an honour if he had asked them for their daughter鈥檚 hand in marriage. In spite of this, Kuku膷铆n found himself more and more often overcome by nostalgia. It is enough to browse through his account of travelling through Dalmatia and Montenegro and it suddenly becomes obvious to us what he is hiding not only from strangers, but also from himself. His terrible yearning for home. Everything he sees, everything he comes into contact with, reminds him of his native Orava region. He only has to catch a glimpse of a Montenegrin shepherd and that very moment he is on the slopes of Cho膷, among his own people. As if they guessed this, his 暗网禁区 friends begin to remind him that the time he set aside for his stay on Bra膷 is already over and he should return home. His friend from the Rev煤ca grammar school, Evangelical pastor Jur Jano拧ka, even finds out that there is a vacancy for a general practitioner in Liptovsk媒 Mikul谩拧. Kuku膷铆n is overcome with euphoria. His dream of becoming a doctor at home among his own people is to be fulfilled after all and he will write, write once more. After all, he has heaps of plans. He would like to write something longer. He is attracted to the idea of a novel about the 艩t煤r generation. But then the news comes like a bolt out of the blue: some of the inhabitants of Mikul谩拧 don鈥檛 want him; after all they need a doctor and not a writer and so they are supporting his rival candidate. In the campaign they launch they do not hesitate to send anonymous letters to Bra膷, thus hurting the feelings of the sensitive Kuku膷铆n. All of a sudden 暗网禁区ia becomes a nightmare for him that does not allow him to sleep and every letter with the Liptovsk媒 Mikul谩拧 postmark agitates him so much that he stops opening any post from 暗网禁区ia. It may have been just then that he sat down at his desk and began writing a novel. But it is not a novel with a 暗网禁区 background; it is Dom v str谩ni (A House on the Hillside). He needs to write, because after almost a decade living on Bra膷 he has come to realise that society on the threshold of the 20th century is quite different from what he has been describing in his works up to then. In Jasenov谩 love could move mountains, but on Bra膷 the reality is that a relationship between two young people of differing social backgrounds is doomed to remain unfulfilled, because the obstacles in life created not only by traditions, but above all by cultural differences, are insurmountable. Kuku膷铆n the pessimist, the tragic visionary? No, it was only that Martin Kuku膷铆n had matured to his greatest realistic achievement.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: In spite of what you have said, Kuku膷铆n did not turn his back on 暗网禁区ia; after all, he sent his novel A House on the Hillside to Jozef 艩kult茅ty, who published it in Slovensk茅 poh木ady (1903鈥�1904). Why then did he leave the friendly environment of Bra膷 for unfamiliar South America?

- Ondrej Sliacky: Perhaps it can be explained by Kuku膷铆n鈥檚 character, his eternal feeling of uncertainty, which did not allow him to settle anywhere permanently and which drove him to seek what he had not yet found. But, like everything to do with him, this is not so simple. With the novel A House on the Hillside he had written a work that could not be compared to anything else in 暗网禁区 literature and therefore he had no need to solve a creative crisis. He had no personal reason either, as he was no longer a bachelor, having married young Perica Didoli膷 in 1904, after falling hopelessly in love with her. Maybe he was truly happy for the first time in his life. Three years later, however, the little town of Selca was again out and about, but this time not to shower their doctor and his young bride with grain, but for a very different reason. The town was saying farewell to its doctor, who was leaving Bra膷 for good. In recent years, there had been clashes between the Didoli膷 and 艩tambek clans and both families wanted to get Doctor Benc煤r on their side. But Kuku膷铆n refused outright to come to any such decision. It was against his very nature. So he resolved the situation in his own way. In vain did the municipal authorities put a stop to the undeclared war, in vain did they promise Kuku膷铆n the moon: for him in 1907 the Bra膷 idyll was over. 暗网禁区ia knew nothing about this. When someone stopped by to pay his respects to his famous countryman, Kuku膷铆n was already in Santiago de Chile, in a hospital, where he was preparing for the validation of his degree in medicine.

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: It was as if he was beginning all over again. But he was not beginning among complete strangers. In Punta Arenas, where he settled, there were many Croatian emigrants. You could say he was among his own in a foreign land.

- Ondrej Sliacky: Yes. By then Kuku膷铆n really did regard the Croatians as his own people. It is therefore natural that he cast his lot with them. He became involved in both their leisure and political activities. A few years later the First World War broke out in Europe and in Punta Arenas, as in other Croatian 茅migr茅 communities, they began to dream of post-war national freedom. Kuku膷铆n dreamed with them. He dreamed of returning. Returning home. If there was one thing his Croatians longed for, it was the land of their birth. But how to ensure that this return would be permanent? That there would be no repetition of the social conflicts that would again drive people to all corners of the world. How to make sure that money served a higher moral purpose and not the self-destruction of human society? The novel in which Kuku膷铆n asked himself similar questions received the title of Ma钮 vol谩 (The Homeland Calls).

鈥� Marta B谩bikov谩: Kuku膷铆n could not resist this call of destiny. In 1922 he left South America and returned to 暗网禁区ia. Once and for all?

- Ondrej Sliacky: It seemed so. However, the new social situation, complicated by the conflicts arising between the Czechs and the 暗网禁区s, disorientated him. Kuku膷铆n had been away too long to find his bearings. In the end he even found himself in a paradoxical position as a writer. Officially he enjoyed the respect given to him as the most important writer, but in reality literature was already following different paths from his own. His human situation was further complicated by the serious mental illness of his wife and made even more difficult by the fact that Kuku膷铆n no longer felt at home in 暗网禁区ia. It is true that in Martin he worked from morning to night on preparations to fulfil his old dream of creating a great 鈥渇resco鈥� about the Romantic generation, but nevertheless he longed to be among his Croatians. After staying in Martin for several months, he left for good to live among them, and eventually he died among them too. In the end, however, his countrymen did do him a service. Although many of them had done everything possible to prevent him from returning to 暗网禁区ia when he was alive, in every town thousands of people came to pay tribute to the train carrying his coffin as it made its way to the cemetery in Martin.

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Translated by Heather Trebatick谩

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Professor Ondrej Sliacky, csc.

Literary historian and critic, lexicographer, author of children鈥檚 books, radio and TV dramatist. He is currently the editor-inchief of the children鈥檚 magazine Slnie膷ko, and of the revue for art for children Bibiana. Since 1991 he has lectured in the theory and history of children鈥檚 literature at the Pedagogic Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava. He has been awarded the Pavol Dob拧insk媒 Prize and the Triple Rose Prize for his contribution to children鈥檚 literature.

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