Books for the kids, books for the adult, books for older people… what type of literature do we lack? I think we lack literature in a general sense. Old books are getting forgotten, the world is changing too fast and we need to have a big focus to keep up with it. What seems to be the problem here? The lack of young authors? The lack of interest? Maybe a lack of talent? Or just the lack of the will… Why is literature becoming something very unworthy and cheap? I would like to mention a few issues which could be the real thing why our national identity is low and weak.

The war between the young and the old…

Are there people who are too adamant and narcissistic to admit that they should give over the throne to the youth? Oh, yes. Are there many of them? Yes, again. Are they a passive “danger”? For sure, and not even in a passive way. A lot of people who get to certain age get that mindset that they are the wisest and the most worthy, and the rest of the world is trash. Among Rusyns, there are a lot of examples like this. I do remember one time when I posted one of my creations on my Facebook profile, and a seventy-years (more-less) old person wrote to me about how he assumes that I am still not capable of talking about life and sentiments because I am too young, how I didn’t do anything for the Rusyn nation, and how I am pretentious and obsessed with myself just because I posted one small piece of prose. After that, he wrote a whole paragraph about how I can’t compare to him because of what he did for the Rusyn nation (I mean, who asked? Who cared?). To be honest, his insults weren’t that harmful to me. But there was something that bothered me. Some people devalue and depreciate young people and their work because of their frustrations. What could be the outcome? What if one not-so-confident teenage girl decides to post a love poem in the Rusyn language of which we should be proud, and some old fart writes you how you are not old enough to talk about love? How many hidden talents would hide even more? How many young people would be demoralized? It annoyed me.

• Price of the work = Our own worth?

When the Newspaper publishing institution RUSKE SLOVO published the list of the available books for buying, something caught my eye. All of the books are pretty low-priced. Most of them are about 300 dinars (about 2,5 euros). The books are constantly on sale, and their prices go lower and lower until they decide to give them off for free. Isn’t that sad? When a writer decides to put his effort into the work, his time, mind, sweat, and knowledge, does he think about how much his work is well worth? Does the price of the work show the author’s value too? It’s the fact that the world doesn’t value books anymore like before, and the term “writer” means you have no money or a real job. Of course, there’s no point in blaming the publishing Institutions, because it’s just the way it is. What does control, or who is controlling the market? Who determines how much is the work worth? The author and the work, or the audacity? We know that everything we do, we need to do with love. Those who write, they write with love too. But we need to be honest, and admit that the money and the gains can motivate us and stimulate us to keep going. Why are the books given away for free? Is it because people do not read? And if they actually do, there has to be another equally bad reason.

• Today’s youth and their depression and anxiety

People globally today suffer from depression. They are losing the will for life, motivation for work, and strength to fight. People today don’t ever dare to dream in my part of the world. I do feel that there are a lot of artists hiding there when it comes to the Rusyn youth. Some of them don’t believe in themselves. Some of them do not know where and how to start. Some of them are just in the shadows because of the older ones. Does the youth have the opportunity?

• Nepotism and corruption

I already wrote about this in my past articles, so I don’t want to really repeat myself.

What do we lack? I feel there is this gap between the literature for children and “adult” literature. Where are the books for the teens and youth? We need to normalize modern things more! Among the lot of books our publishing house is selling, I noticed there are not many adequate pieces of literature for teenagers. We know that the pressure is huge, but not every piece of work has to be on an extremely high level, and by that I mean, that not every work should have extremely historical, geographical, political, or some other social science topic. Where are horror stories? Love dramas? Diary-type of the book? Let’s imagine: I should ask one sixteen or seventeen years old which Rusyn book they love the most. I am not sure how well they will answer. Our literature got lost in history. Today, it’s either book for the kids or a science-type of book. In between, there are many poetry books written, but to be honest, half of them (or even more) are written by older people and they don’t give off the vibe toward young ones. What are the benefits of modern literature for young people?

• It motivates them to connect what they do with the Rusyness

When I was a teenager I adored modern love poetry, as I do now. But I could read it mostly in English, and some in Serbian. There was no nice poetry for me in the Rusyn language until I started to write one. But the problem was, as I read poetry in English, I started writing in English. Then in Serbian. Writing in Rusyn was my last decision.

• It embraces their identity.

When one is from an early age getting adapted into Rusyn things, especially in the books, songs, coloring books, etc. he will be conscious about his real identity in the right way. When one enters teenage mode, oh, we do know how it goes. You don’t know who you are, you feel like an outsider, and you don’t know what you want to do. And imagine then, you take your teenage drama book to avoid those problems, and read it in Rusyn. I am currently 22, but I would be hyped to read some teenage drama in Rusyn right now.

I do wish for people to create something new. I want to create something new too. We need to combine beautiful and useful, and sometimes we need to look much further than we do usually. We need to say: “Okay, now let’s see what we lack! Which age category is critical? Which gender category is neglected? Which worldwide topics do we have the least? Let’s make for everybody something. Let’s spread Rusyness through literature and stuck it in the space in our minds. We need to know what others want as much as we need to know what we want. Our literature should be elevated into a higher position, and then we will be one step closer to the acceptance and embracement of our identity.