Interview by Ilaria Gelichi
IL SORRISO DELLA MERETRICE Amazon
The classic question : how did the book
start?
It
has been bred by the belly. Not by the brain. The stomach is a second brain in
all respects . It is able to think independently of the first brain, that of
the skull, to be understood.
For
this reason, the book has dark tones, this brain - the stomach - works in the
darkness and in silence. As the fecal matter the
protagonists also looking for a way out. A lumen beyond the
orifice from which they communicate between their inner world and the outer .
It
' s a book born mainly at the end of a love affair, passionate but negative
because of a woman who apparently was bad but I thought was good. Instead she
was really bad while looking good.
A
belly centered woman, of basic feelings : eat, drink, fuck and defecate. And a
less more ...
However, in the book there are often
references to Love, to the impossibility of Love and yet it seems that there is
an intense search for Love
Yes,
Love is the lumen characters strive for to get the orifice that illuminates the
lives of niche of these negative and belly centered characters. This is the
unique feeling that can get them out of the darkness . They live in a
borderline world ( sphincteric ) between the darkness of their painless despair
(Nothingness), and the love that can possibly redeem them, but it is as if they
could see it through a tiny hole through which they fail to pass
Women are often painted in a negative
way
it's
not true in "Ninfomane", for example, I underline a positive role of
women's sexuality. It's not a negative vision of women at all. It's a way to
re-establish their roles . The woman's apparent negativity that comes from the
book goes as far back as the archetypal role: woman as a mother , woman
as a prey and as an object of exchange, woman as a whore , woman as a
temptress , woman as an incomprehensible object more than a sexual object ...
archetypes are actually difficult to conciliate with the women modern role
advancement. Today there really is too much confusion with roles. The
archetypes at least help us to identify the starting point from which we
originated and to which we belong and will belong forever. The origin is in us
and never abandons us as the etymology of words that century after century
expands their meaning but still entails the well rooted initial meaning
It 's a book apparently simple but dense
It
's the book that I wanted to make people think, first of all . I hope I
succeeded
Why microstories (microracconti)?
It
's the lesson of socialmedia : Facebook , Twitter... The contents have to be
visualized rather than read. Thus, I forced myself to shorten the reading time.
The thing that amazed me is that as I wrote the stories and as I was
posting them on the blog I remained surprised by the fact that most of the
clickers/viewers/readers were from the United States , Russia, Ukraine and
Japan. I even had confirmation to have readers who never read books or very
rarely . Certainly I think this is due to the shortness of the reading time
that makes these stories readable to even those who maybe have difficulty
reading long texts but they could easily read such texts ...
What do you think of Italian readers and
publishers?
About
Italian readers I don't know what to say , except that the majority has a
globalized and visual taste. They prefer to see instead of thinking . Reading
should lead people to think and not to "see". But we live in the era
of social media where the image is more important than the content .
Regarding
Italian publishers I only have negative things to say. Provincial, myopic ,
unable to look beyond the neo-realism that still dominates in the choking
Italian culture, from literature to cinema to politics. Can you imagine that
Elena Ferrante is considered one of the greatest Italian writers!
What are your expectations about your
book?
I
do not have many expectations . Without a big publisher behind you you don't go
far . At any rate the book is built according to my way of thinking , according
to beliefs: I write to create , to learn and fight. A book that compels people
to think, a book that will strike you , that will take you up to the
heaven but also into the hell ...
The author's relationship with the city
of Florence. You often cite Florence in your books
Yes,
I often quote the city . I often quote its libraries , its cafes, its cinemas ,
its restaurants ... Florence, although sometimes suffocates me , is an
international city, charming, seductive, sexy ... Some evenings in the winter
when it is dark and cold, walking along the streets, observing the colors, and
smelling makes you feel as if you are walking through a fairytale world. My
loves, my lovers , the characters in my books are born here and they die here,
in this city .
In
"The Smile of the Whore " there is a microracconto entirely dedicated
to Caffè Strozzi, one of my favorite places in Florence
Plans for the future
I'm
working on a novel, the title at this moment is " Un cattivo
soggetto" but at the same time I continue writing stories, and
miniracconti miniriflessioni ... as well as the rewriting of texts already
published by other authors that lead me to explore new territories and to do
style and plotting exercises which I find very interesting.
I
speak only through stories . If I have criticisms to make of society, politics,
culture, I do it through my stories ... I believe that the time has come to
stop complaining . We live in a country of lamentoni (people
who always complain) unable to give solutions because they are not even looking
for them. Complaining is easy, it is difficult to find solutions . We have this
political : the worst political class ever (maybe). Therefore there are only
two paths to follow: either take the guns and knock it down or make the most of
it by trying to do your job in the best way you can conscious, that the political
class does not give us any help and will never give us any help .
