Welcome to Litsy!

Taken from a series of weekly columns Elena Ferrante wrote for the Guardian, this collection showcases her introspective mind. Translation from Italian is by Ann Goldstein. Each piece is accompanied by a colour illustration by Andrea Ucini. I enjoyed dipping into this just one or two essays at a time. #WIT #womeninTranslationmonth

An enemy may simply be someone who, out of a sort of emotional exhaustion, has avoided the effort, the complexity, the pleasure—all the ambiguities of friendship.

So I feel close to all women, and, sometimes for one reason, sometimes for another, I recognize myself in the best as well as in the worst. Is it possible, people say to me at times, that you don‘t know even one bitch? I know some, of course: literature is full of them and so is everyday life. But, all things considered, I‘m on their side.

Sometimes I think I understand why we women increasingly read novels. Novels, when they work, use lies to tell the truth. The information marketplace, battling for an audience, tends, more and more, to transform intolerable truths into novelistic, riveting, enjoyable lies.

I have no liking for the throne we have assigned ourselves by declaring we are beloved children of God & lords of the universe. [That pride] distresses me—that, although we are animals among animals, we believe we have the right to enslave the rest of the living world. This makes us dangerous & ridiculous. However much we empower ourselves with increasingly sophisticated technology, we remain comic creatures like the cat that a child dresses ...

We never know what effect the stories we write have. And if we as writers make a mistake, readers have the right to punish us—by not reading our works. But I still think that those who are more or less arbitrarily given the job of telling stories shouldn‘t be concerned about the serenity of individual readers; rather, they should construct fictions that help seek the truth of the human condition.

At least in writing we should avoid acting like the fanatical world leaders who threaten, bargain, make deals, and then exult when they win, fortifying their speeches with the profile of a nuclear missile at the end of every wretched sentence.
-The Exclamation Point

What perhaps should be feared most is the fury of frightened people.

#AcrossApril Day 24: Not sure about #DarkIntention but this one has Incidental Inventions, Ferrante style, paired with ze husband‘s meat pasta with chorizo de bilbao - and cheese, plenty of cheese.