Svetislav Basara: The Cyclist Conspiracy

…three. Yes, as early as 1953. A man closes his eyes for a moment; just as he surrenders to dreaming, a hundred years pass. Grossman is still asleep or pretending to sleep. I really cannot tell the difference. In any case, the absence of his presence will allow me to finally clear up one thing: Are we dead? With that, I do not mean — have we died? That is a fact. The dates of our deaths are a thing of the very distant past, when seen from this time period. We have died, died, there is no doubt about it. Even if my memory were playing tricks, Grossman is here; he and his visits to the grave where I buried him after all. In truth, with only one S in his name, so that he does not become overly proud. All kinds of things happened on the face of the earth while we dreamed for a few minutes. But that does not fill me with wonder or disgust. Didn’t I know all of that? Above all, I should solve the problem of our ontological status. I died, I am no longer alive, and still my senses have been sharpened, my powers of observation greater than when I dragged myself through life, divided between me-on-the-throne and me-in-the-interspace. I see everything that I want to and need to, I hear everything I want to and need to, but I am not to be found. That fact creates a certain amount of anxiety. Facts always create anxiety. Still, I am not complaining. My lower back does not hurt any more, there are no more of those bursting ulcers, that dead silence reverberating with the echoes of gulping, lip-smacking, crunching bones mixed with the loud rush in collective meals in the dining halls. Grossman, wake up! Yes, Sire. At your service, Sire! At whose service, you idiot. Look around! Have a look from these heights which you have reached thanks to me! Where are the kings? In the museums, Sire. What did I tell you? I don’t know what to say, your majesty. Of course you don’t know what to say. You never did. For centuries you’ve been repeating, like a parrot, the slogans you learned by heart at Uppsala. Look around, see what’s happening in the churches. Oh, I can’t believe it. They’ve been turned into Culture Clubs. Storage rooms for fire prevention equipment. What’s happening down there, Sire? There’s a revolution going on, Grossman. You never mentioned that, your majesty. Everything in due time. In the meantime you have forgotten all your Latin because of your senility, all of those declinations and conjugations, and that’s why you don’t know the meaning of the word “ revolutio .” I remember it, but only vaguely, Sire. But, Grossman, do you know what Leninism is? No, Sire. Don’t you remember your dream from one hundred and forty-four years ago, when you dreamt a crowd rushing a palace and shouting: “ da zdravstvuet tovarishch Lenjin ”? No, Sire, I’ve forgotten. That’s not strange for you. You are a man of this so-called time that we are now watching. If you weren’t so dead, you would build a fine career, I don’t doubt. Still, in order to fill the gaps in your education — no matter how fake it is, you are a doctor after all and it means something to you — let me offer you a little more information. Here is what Comrade Stalin said about Leninism,

“Leninism is Marxism of the epoch of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. More precisely: Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

But, Sire… Shut up, you fool! Not another word! You do not contradict the thoughts of Comrade Stalin. They would proclaim you to be a nihilist immediately. As far as I can tell, you would end up way up in the north, digging channels where no boats will ever sail, if you hadn’t had the luck to die. What’s a nihilist, Sire? You scoundrel, if you hadn’t fallen asleep writing down my program for the development of history from the destruction of the Tower of Babylon to its rebuilding, if you hadn’t been scribbling your footnotes that have since disappeared in the past anyway, you would remember my words, my fears that I am the forerunner of nihilism. Anyway, who knows? Maybe I am. Mea culpa. Look, please, Grossman; look at those radiant faces, those processions. They all believe that they will die, that they will die completely, not like this, like you and I, that they will become nothing, and still they are laughing and singing. Isn’t that funny? That’s horrible, your majesty. No, it’s ridiculous. Even though I’ve been dead for so many centuries, I am an undying optimist. The final tower, the one that will perfect evil, that will classify it and separate it completely from good, it is already being slowly planned. We are cooperating with God. Go to sleep now, Grossman. Don’t pretend to be sleeping. There’s nothing else for you to hear. I won’t wake you any more before the trumpets of Jericho sound, and they will be loud enough, I promise you, that they will awaken you and bring you before the Almighty so that you can show him the despicable contents of your secretarial soul. Sleep! Yes, Sire, I’m slowly falling asleep, slowly… falling… asleep…

Grossman has fallen asleep. I can see that from the absence of his presence. Although I’m not tired, I will soon go to sleep as well. But before I close my eyes, as a result of the general concretization turned into two pages of some sort of book, I will turn back one more time to look at this brave new world. That danse macabre . That circle without end. Circus vitiosus .

MIHAILO JOVANOVIĆ, ARCH.

BUILDING: “CITY BABYLON THE GREAT” HOSPITAL — TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

Location

— The “City Babylon the Great” Hospital to be built with special permits on the basis of geodetic (geo-climatic, geo-morphological), climatic, and historical analysis.

Structure

— The entire building is a spiral; all of its ramps rest on the earth (dug in). This will also form the spiral foundation. Interior construction is of steel and cement. Above ground part of building covered with spatial screen, filled with glass.

Vertical walls are of steel and concrete with all insulation (hydro-, thermal, sound). Routes for all installations are run through these walls.

Energy

For lighting, climate control and manufacturing energy, two sources are used:

A — solar energy; daytime lighting and heating on the hothouse principle.

B — Heat energy of the Earth’s core that is absorbed on the floors below 2 miles underground, and can be raised to the level needed when required.

Function and architectural solution

The system of communication facilitates basic functioning, built so that it allows the connection of all levels and sections within the framework of the same level by means of three ways of communicating:

Vertical — elevators.

Horizontal — conveyer belts.

Slanted — along the spiral foundation.

All seven entrances are connected to the central part with selective security. In the NEUROSIS quarter from which elevators go to the base of the spiral with stops and connections at every level. In addition, the central part of the NEUROSIS quarter is connected directly with seven vertical communication systems for each level.

Surfacing

— All interior surfaces to be painted gray. (Shade to be determined by hospital manager.)

— Steel construction to be painted with primer, surface painted also in grey. Flat enamel.

— Steel on the spatial screens not to be painted but polished to a high gloss.