Dissident Spotlight: Marko Vidojković
Marko Vidojković's 2020 novel was real enough to lead to death threats and legal consequences years after its publication.
Many novelists draw on real life to inform their stories, and Marko Vidojković is no different. His 2020 novel Djubre, Trash in English, was a darkly funny novel about navigating a corrupt society based on his experinece with the Serbian government.
Not only did he receive enough death threats to flee the country in 2023, but he was also charged with causing “mental pain” to Belgrade’s mayor in 2024. It’s another absurd and petty charge meant to intimidate writers who point out government flaws a leader may be responsible for.
Authoritarian leaders are so senstive to criticism that even fictional representations that could be perceived as critical of them or anything they could be responsible for is suspect. Even more dangerously, authoritarians identify with the state itself, making crimes against them crimes against the state.
It’s what makes their rule so dangerous and arbitrary.
Freedom to Consider Alternatives
The great thing about fiction is the limitless possiblities it can lead readers to imagine. Readers may personally identify with a character’s quirks or wish they could emulate a character they admire. Settings can make readers wonder what it would be like to inhabit that world and, perhaps as importantly, how the ones they live in might be changed.
Letting the mind wander is one of fiction’s great joys as well as one of the greatest dangers it poses to authoritarians. If a citizen can imagine a world with a unique cast of characters living in an equally unique setting, then they can figure out how to live in the real world without the dear leader.
The “mental harm” caused to leaders who understand this about fiction is both real and well deserved. May writers like Vidojković continue doing the good work of inflicting this harm on leaders who are vulnerable to it.