Status asthmaticus / Status astmatikus
Publisher: Nezavisna izdanja S. Mašića
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Belgrade
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 239
Description: Question for a random reader

Godunovich resides within the realm of two different languages, simultaneously dwelling on two opposite ends of the planet. His amor fati in the East simbolyzes the destiny of those who have stayed – in the West of those who have departed. As the one who remained behind, he writes in Serbian language, but the one who has left, writes in his own unique Serbian English. From the West he faces East, and from the East he gazes towards the West. While writting from the West, his right hand is bearing east; being on the East, writing, his right hand is his west hand. Trying to fall asleep here in his eastern abode, he scrapes the clouds above Belgrade; trying to sleep there he is alligned horizontally, close to the former RAF station in the suburbs of London. Concealed, as much as one can be in a Diaspora, he anxiously awaits the departure of ‘merciful’ bomber flying his way to enforce peace in his distant country. Down here, scared to death, he is buried deep into his native soil, something yet to be defined, with no expression, no notion. Both the Patriot, who stays, and tries to defend ‘Her’ from falling into enemies hands, and the refugee, apatride who jumps ship – are actually the same person. Both of them are heroes, and cowards at the same time, the one who has left and the one who stayed behind. It is a ‘Face-off’ happening within the same person, just as Here and There are merely coordinates in space. So there is only one habitus for Godunovich because his fear, weakness, and illness are the same here and there, which is also why his English narrative only slightly differs from his Serbian. His outer and inner exiles are the same, as he seeks refuge there and here as well. In the tainted scheme of wider historical and narrower medical circumstances, within  that hideous occurrence of one’s simultaneous general and personal histories, he remains a homeless figure, a refugee both here and there. Illness does not recognize frontiers, differences between zones and alternate climates...

Could one ever possibly leave – and if he does ever leave, could one stay?
Could one flee from this ‘here’ and from that ‘there’ and remain alive?