Interview - Slobodan Schneider, writer
We have nothing, but we are cultured"The phrase 'Save me, God, Croatian culture and Serbian heroism' is incorrectly attributed to Krleža. Nowhere in Krleža does that connection exist as it is expressed in Croatian Faust. I 'bought' it from my grandmother. In the absence of tangible historical realities, political forces, and even material assumptions for collective destiny to be experienced as a collective subject, the concept of culture itself is heavily burdened, and of course, it is idealized: We have nothing, but we are cultured. Unfortunately, it turns out that this is no insurance against the occasional fall into barbarism. The opposite is, of course, 'Serbian heroism'. That this is also no guarantee against falling into barbarism, probably follows from the matter itself. The genesis of this assemblage is similar to the genesis of the assemblage - 'thousand-year culture'. This is why it is justified that they are usually quoted in pairs as something to escape from, dear God."
