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georgi gospodinov
Yes, I occupy several posts,
mayor, party secretary, chief
of the gendarmerie.”
“And why did you have to
arrest me?”
“Oh, I have more than
enough reasons. But above
all, I wanted to see you,
shame on you for coming
here and not giving me a
call ...Because of the good
old days. You’ve rented out
a house to write in, and just
imagine the coincidence, the
same one you used to live in.
I’m happy that you look back
fondly on those years.”
“What ’s with that baloney
downtown, are you shooting
some kind of a movie? You
haven’t become a director,
too, now have you?” “No, it ’s
far more serious than that.
I’ve launched a project. In
short, I’m turning time back
thirty years. Nothing has
changed here
in any case. I’m creating the
world’s largest museum.
A museum of the past, of
socialism, call it what you
will. The whole town, every
day, round-the-clock, a total
museum. Actually, ‘museum’
isn’t exactly the right word,
everything is live. Everyone
keeps being whatever he was
then, and we pay him for it.
I foot the bill for everything.
We don’t pay them much,
but we don’t ask much of
them, either. Just for them
to stay the same. They’re
nostalgic for the olden days
in any case. We’ve cut off
the Internet, TV, we sell
newspapers only from back
then, actually we reprint the
old editions
in reverse order, we’ve
imposed penal t ies for
telling political jokes, we’ve