Stories of Imagination and Dreams – An Interview

"Lina Shash"-During the first autumn days I was just right there, next to the tents of the circus of our childhood and happened to come across a funeral of a zebra. I also joined that funeral procession because that zebra completely browsed the most beautiful magnolia in my garden. That very moment a woman with black bun and with plunging neckline, inappropriate for funerals, stood next to me. I recognized her. It was her – Lina Shash, the owner of the oldest castles and the first prioress of the monasteries of Fruška Gora. After we threw a lump of soil on the dead zebra, I finally took courage to ask my fair of Fruška Gora, my Lina Shash, in marriage. She accepted and the last circus performance started in the twilight. Everyone who attended the funeral entered the tent…”	Lina Shash
Stone in Wheat	“Stone in Wheat”-“A book of stories and of legends provokes attention because of the fact that there appeared a creator who, after his own TV series of “Castles of Vojvodina” and with the support of numerous sponsors, managed to publish this multidisciplinary book in which, through words and photos, there revived ten castles in the form of, as Belegišanin says, “noble and curative lies” (“Dnevnik”, July 21, 1993). Milan Belegišanin visited Sremska Kamenica and the castle Karačonji, the Old Castle of Beočin, Kapetanovo, Stari Lec, Castle in Čelarevo, Hajdučica, and “the most beautiful park of all parks”, the Castle in Ečka, Veliko Središte, Fischer's farm near Ruma, castle Schloss in Golubinci and Dundjerski's Fantast near Bečej.
“Night of St. Nicholas”- Inevitability of death is questioned in this book, because “is there death, is there disappearance, if the consciousness of man continues to live out of his body and acts in objects, defining the paths of human destiny through karmic effect, bridging time and space, and, is there, at the end of all ends, definitiveness, if and when life disappears out of a shell there still remains the sound of sea” (“Dnevnik”, 1994)?	Night of St. Nicholas
Horg	“Horg” - The book contains four separated stories – which make a whole, the stories which are deeply connected, and therefore, it is not a coincidence, but it is made into a meaningful mutual title after one of them, “Horg”. It is a story about mutual history, about a mythical deer Horg which appears in different times but always in the same space – near the Rakovac monastery. “Time is only not measured by suffering. Therefore, the heroes of Belegišanin glide overstretched over the horns of a mighty Horg in eternity, not worrying much whether that eternity is all around us, here and now, not in a distant future of which it is not possible to think at all. Therefore, at this spot it is not the matter of thinking, but of suffering – the healer.“(Slobodan Nenin, „Politika“, August 16, 1997).
“The Wings”-A sentimental, occassionally pathetic (with justification) story about four life stories given through the stay (arrival and departure) in a sanatorium, i.e. town institution for treatment of alcoholics, drug addicts and depressed, really has all characteristics of a short novel. The author has, as he did in his previous books, risen the taste of reality for one astral milimeter above geography and daily routine. The solutions of numerous situations are very poetic, which is the matter of investigating the enchantment, magics which is behind certain human behaviour.	The Wings
Petrified prayers	“Petrified prayers” - “By committing himself to a sort of magic realism, Belegišanin cherishes the combination of dream and reality, facts and fantasy, hagiography and publicity all through his new contributions. Taking Fruška gora as a legendary and holy scene of action with monks’ dwellings being mentioned as early as 12th century, Belegišanin found material which is sufficiently inspiring for a story of 17 still existing and alive monasteries for his petrified prayers of high style and a new, heretic point. A legend of a boy who died on a not very high, but to God dear mountain of Fruška gora, represents a basement on which all possible stories are woven and the holy powder from the wings of a butterfly is spread all over in the measure of the writer's gift and skill.” The monasteries described by Belegišanin are Beočin, Krušedol, Jazak, Grgeteg, Petkovica, Bešenovo, Velika Remeta, Divša, Rakovac, Kuveždin, Staro Hopovo, Vrdnik, Ravanica, Šišatovac, Fenek, Prvina Glava, Mala Remeta, and Novo Hopovo.