Hiding in plain sight Quote by Aleksandar Hemon
““...while hiding in plain sight in Belgrade, undercover as a New Age mountebank, Karadžić frequented a bar called Mad House - Luda kuća. Mad House offered weekly gusle-accompanied performances of Serbian epic poetry; wartime pictures of him and General Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serbs' military leader (now on trial in The Hague), proudly hung on the walls. A local newspaper claimed that, on at least one occasion, Karadžić performed an epic poem in which he himself featured as the main hero, undertaking feats of extermination. Consider the horrible postmodernism of the situation: an undercover war criminal narrating his own crimes in decasyllabic verse, erasing his personality so that he could assert it more forcefully and heroically.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon, 2013
A war criminal used cultural performance to rewrite his image, turning atrocity into heroic narrative, exposing how art can mask brutality.
In simple terms: He hid his crimes behind poetry, making himself a hero.
Key Takeaway
Beware how storytelling can glorify evil.
Themes
war
propaganda
identity
art
memory
Mood
disturbing
critical
thought‑provoking
Type
analytical
cautionary
When to use this quote
- political trials
- historical analysis
- media criticism
- education on genocide
Key Concepts
postmodernism
heroic narrative
cultural manipulation
Questions to Reflect On
- How does art influence perception of historical villains?
- Can cultural forms ever justify evil?
A Different Perspective
The narrative may romanticize a murderer, risking desensitization.
