Gdje spavaju čudovišta / Where do the monsters sleep

Jelena Hrvoj, Štorka
(Vlastita naklada, 2017.)

Demon. U nekim objašnjenjima božanstvo, u drugima zao duh. Natprirodna pojava, odmetnuti anđeo, biće podzemlja koje manipulira ljudima, navodi na grijeh, dovodi u kušnju, nanosi fizičku bol i poigrava se psihom žrtve. Demoni nemaju tijela, a svoje obličje pronalaze u prirodnim elementima (neki će reći, u umovima ljudi), izazivajući  zlo, kvar, bolest, neplodnost, glad, nesreću i smrt…
Hrvatske legende bogate su različitim demonskim likovima, a jedan od njih (meni nov) jest lik štorke. Štorka je dokaz da čudovišta ne spavaju ispod našega kreveta, ona spavaju u našim glavama. U nekim glavama spavaju zauvijek, s povremenim otvaranjem jednoga oka kako bi sudjelovali u životima svojih nositelja, a u nekim drugim glavama žive i preuzimaju kontrolu, stvarajući velike probleme. Ovo biće dio je folklora i tradicije, a kao biće proizišlo iz bakinih priča postalo je i sjajno nadahnuće za roman „Štorka“ mlade hrvatske autorice Jelene Hrvoj.
Iako mu se pridaje naziv psihološkoga trilera, ovaj roman (kao i njegov brat-nastavak, „Štorka: Manifest“) obuzet je snažnom atmosferom iskusnog fantastičnog romana koji nalikuje horor-romanima Stephena Kinga, ali i  gotičkim romanima prožetima mistikom i maglovitim sivilom. Tijekom sjajnoga i tečnoga pripovijedanja u trećoj osobi jednine koje se presijeca izjavama (gotovo mantrama) čudesnoga bića nazvanoga Štorka, u roman se uvlači sumnja kako je Štorka zapravo plod mašte, naoko shizofrena epizoda introvertirane dvadesetsedmogodišnje protagonistice Ere Torin. Štorka se u roman uvlači prepredeno, đavolje, u riječima:
„Tog se jutra maleno stvorenje polagano probijalo ispod lubanje, a njegov se glasić začuo dovoljno glasno.“
Sama je toliko poetična, izgovara rečenice koje uvelike nalikuju tamnom energijom natopljenim sentencama. Likovima se prikrada kako bi im njihove osobne borbe i terete učinila još težima. Njezina pojavnost stimulira daljnje čitanje u kojemu je primarni motiv nepoznato stvorenje koje svojim iskričavim upadicama stvara nelagodu, ali i znatiželju koja stremi otkrivanju njegova identiteta i onoga što će već na sljedećim stranicama učiniti. Pritom se može reći kako je Štorka zasijala sjeme straha i nevjerice kroz tijelo svoje nositeljice Ere, a zatim pratila razmotavanje klupka i uništenja okaljanih duša. Štorku (čiji bi se naziv mogao povezati s dijalektalnim glagolom šturkati koji označava guranje, pomicanje, u smislu razmicanja žara u peći - slično čini i ova demonska pojava među ljudima, potičući njihove strahove i grijehe na rasplamsavanje) i Eru Torin (čije ime može, u slobodnom prijevodu, označavati razdvojeno vrijeme, rascjepljenu vremensku eru - time bi se mogla potvrditi izreka kako vrijeme nije saveznik i uništava) moglo bi se protumačiti i kao utjelovljenje jedne osobe, alegorijskoga poimanja svijeta koji grade ljudske mane i vrline, a koje nesmiljeno svojom rukom dotiče dotrajalost, ne dopuštajući ni jednom dobru ni jednom zlu da traje vječno.
Stil pisanja Jelene Hrvoj izaziva jezu, a zločini koji su povezani s Erom Torin i ostalim likovima ponekad djeluju toliko pomaknuto, a opet, toliko užasavajuće svakodnevno prisutno u crnoj kronici. Pojavljuje se tako zabrinjavajuć i aktualan problem obiteljskoga nasilja i nasilja nad ženama koji se ironično pokušava racionalizirati:
„Sve dok sama Lidija Riter ne odluči pokazati zube okolina joj neće pomoći, ma koliko ta okolina autoritativna bila. I sve dok Lidija Riter ne bude ležala u grobu, polomljena i spokojna, taj isti autoritet ne može staviti ruke na Tina Ritera. Otužno? Da.“
Hrvoj prikazuje i likove drugih profila: trinaestogodišnjeg psihopata u nastanku (koji, otužno, nosi nadimak Onoga koji je prije dvije tisuće godina razapet na križu), mladog bogataša kojemu roditelji dopuštaju sve, čak i napad na maloljetnu trudnu ljubavnicu, stare pokvarenjake, majke koje ne mogu imati djecu, a nasuprot njima mlade čedomorke sumnjiva morala…
Svi ovi likovi, zahvaljujući medijima i društvenoj devijaciji, kao da su nadahnuti okrutnom stvarnošću. Njihove su priče postale legendarne. Umjesto da prepričavamo priče o fantastičnim i nestvarnim bićima i iz zabave, poput malih izviđača na kampiranju, sijemo strah među slušateljima, mi se suočavamo sa stvarnim bićima od krvi i mesa čija je esencija prožeta zlom, bićima koja nazivamo ljudi i njihovim nedjelima čija je prisutnost i učestalost zastrašujuća.
Strah i jeza ovoga romana sele se i u njegov nastavak „Manifest“ u kojemu nas sljedeće rečenice tjeraju na psihološku inventuru vlastitih poimanja života i samih sebe:
„Sjetite se samo svih onih malih i velikih zala kojima ste natjerali suzu u tuđe oko.“
Autorica na vješt i literarno liberalan način navodi čitatelja na promišljanje o dobru i zlu, na prihvaćanje činjenice da smo odgovorni za svoje postupke i na shvaćanje života kao pletiva u kojemu je važno koristiti prave boje konca kako bi konačna slika prikazivala pravo stanje, a to se može učiniti samo kritičkim probiranjem ljubavi iz svih otpadaka koji ruše duševnu ravnotežu i unose nemir.

(MM, 12. 3. 2019.) 


Jelena Hrvoj, Shtorka
(Self-published, 2017.)

A demon. In some explanation something divine and in other an evil spirit. An unnatural presence, rogue angel. A creature from beyond that manipulates people,  leads them to sin, taunts them, brings them physical pain and toys with the psyche of its victim. Demons don’t have physical bodies and they find their form in natural elements (some might say, in the human mind); they cause evil, dysfunction, sickness, infertility, misfortune, and death…

Croatian legends are rich with demonic creatures, and one of them is (new to me) the figure of Shtorka. Shtorka is the evidence that monsters don’t live under our bed but instead sleep in our heads. In some heads, they sleep forever with an only occasional opening of one eye so they can participate in the lives of their carriers. On the other hand, they live in some other heads and take full control, causing problems. This particular creature is a part of folklore and tradition and as a being that came from her grandmother’s stories, it became a great inspiration for the novel Shtorka of the young Croatian author Jelena Hrvoj.

Although it has been characterized as a psychological thriller, this novel (as well as its brother Shtorka-Manifest) is threaded with the strong atmosphere of an experienced fantasy novel that is similar to horror novels of Stephen King but also resembles gothic novels pervaded with mystique and foggy grayness. Through the terrific and fluent narration in the third person of a singular form that is sectioned with statements (almost mantras) of a mystical creature Shtorka, the novel is filled with doubt that Shtorka is actually a figment of the imagination, a seamless schizophrenic episode of the introverted twenty-eight-year old protagonist Era Torin. Shtorka crawls into the story cunningly, devilish, with words:

“On that morning the small creature slowly started crawling underneath her skull and its voice was loud enough to be heard.”
Shtorka on her own is so poetical; she speaks sentences which resemble dark energy soaked sentences. She sneaks up to all characters so that she can make their struggles and pain even harder. Its presence stimulates you into reading in which the primary motive is an unknown creature that causes discomfort and triggers curiosity with its presence and pushes you to unfold its identity and everything it will do on pages to come. It can be said that Shtorka planted a seed of fear and disbelief in the body of its host Era and carried on observing the unwinding of a metaphorical yarn of destruction of souls surrounding them.

Shtorka (the name can be linked to the Croatian verb šturkati/shturkati; which’s meaning is “to push around, poke ember”. It could be related to this demonic creature and its effect of people around it; poking their fear and sins to burn faster) and Era (whose name, in its simplest meaning, represents the time period, an divided time period of an era; symbolically representing time that isn’t our ally and destroys) can be interpreted as a single person, an allegorical interpretation of the world which is built upon human flaw and virtue, and who are relentlessly touching deterioration, yet again it can be seen in real newspaper crime chronicle. Here we can see such a concerning and actual problem of domestic violence and violence against women that is being ironically rationalized as for example:

“Until Lidija Riter decides to stand up the society won’t help her, no meter how authoritative that same society might be. And until Lidija Riter isn’t lying in the cold ground, broken and serene, that same authority can’t put its hands on Tin Riter. Sad? It is.”
Hrvoj shows us different profiles of characters: A thirteen year old sociopath in the making (who, sadly, bears the name of One who was crucified two thousand years ago); a young rich man whose parents allow everything, even an assault on his young pregnant lover; old rotten people; mother’s who can’t have children and to their opposite-young child murderers with questionable moral.

All characters, thanks to the media and social deviation, can be seen as inspired by the cruel, macabre reality. Their stories became legendary. Instead of telling stories of supernatural creatures, like young scouts next to a campfire, spreading fear amongst our listeners, we are facing with real creatures of flesh and blood whose essence is soaked in evil; beings we call human and their wrongdoing whose presence and frequency is terrifying. The fear and shudder of this novel moves on to its sequel named Manifest in which the following sentences force us to do a psychological inventory:

“Just remember all these small and huge evils you have done and forced a tear into someone else’s eye.”

The author forces the reader to think about good and evil in a cunning literary-liberal way. She forces them to accept the fact that we are responsible for our own acts and she forces them to think about life as a weave, in which it is important to use right threads to paint the final picture; that can only be achieved by critical screenings of love out of all leftovers that are collapsing our inner balance and are bringing unrest.



(reviewer: MM, translator: HJ)

Primjedbe