THE BRIDGES OF MY MIND

Abstract

My generation was brought up on the myth of the bridge. We overestimated its significance and its power – we always preferred the title of
the French translation of Ivo Andri}'s most famous novel, Il y a un pont
sur Drina, to the rather dry English one, The Bridge over the Drina. The
last series of wars in the Balkans, however, have demonstrated quite persuasively that bridges can perish both literally and metaphorically. And
when a soldier killed the Old Bridge in Mostar, many of us felt that much
more had crumbled into the Neretva than just a few stones from the 16th
century. But, at least the event rid us of an illusion.