The 11th annual book festival Slovenian Book Days began in Ljubljana's Zvezda Park on Tuesday with a series of speeches aimed at reminding the Slovenian public of the bright but also the dark sides of Slovenian book culture.
Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti said that books should remain what they have always been in Slovenia - if not the central, at least one of the indirect mediums of culture.
Simoniti added that the ministry will try to protect original Slovenian literary production against different modern influences. He also pointed to the poor state of literary critique, comparing it to a "coma", while stressing that this phenomenon was not confined to Slovenia.
The jury conferring the award for best short story as part of the festival, on the other hand, was given proof that the productivity volume was not suffering under this development.
Choosing from no less than 84 works, it picked "Velikanov Copic" (The Giant's Brush) by Tomaz Pavcnik, a story of an individual striving to find authenticity in an unauthentic world.
Meanwhile, Mayor of Ljubljana Danica Simsic in her address focused on the promising development of the library infrastructure in Slovenia. She also pointed to a strong commitment by the Ljubljana municipality as regards the co-funding of literary publications.
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