Corrado Augias

thumb|Corado Augias in 2010 Corrado Augias OMRI (born 1935) is an Italian journalist, writer and TV host. He was also a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 for the Democratic Party of the Left. Quotes Chi ha ragione? Chi ha visto meglio il tratto saliente della città che, come ogni realtà complessa, può essere considerata da molti e differenti punti di vista? Lo scrittore napoletano Raffaele La Capria definisce Napoli una città bifronte, come Giano, il dio con due facce: «Secondo come la si guarda può essere "disperatissima" o "felicissima"». Il dilemma rappresentato da Napoli è forse nel fatto che qualunque giudizio si esprima può essere considerato giusto. La magnificenza e l'abiezione, la bellezza e l'orrore, una gentilezza e una crudeltà che sembrano venire entrambe da tempi remoti. Perché se Napoli fosse solo orrore e ferocia come talvolta la cronaca induce a pensare, non varrebbe nemmeno la pena di arrovellarsi, di chiedersi come mai possa accadere tutto ciò che vi accade. Who's right? Who has best seen the salient stretch of the city which, like any complex reality, can be considered from many different points of view? Neapolitan writer Raffaele La Capria defines Naples as a two-faced city, like Janus, the god with two faces: «Depending on how you look at it, it can be "very desperate" or "very happy"». The dilemma represented by Naples is perhaps that whatever judgment is expressed can be considered fair. The magnificence and abjection, the beauty and horror, a kindness and cruelty that both seem to come from ancient times. Because if Naples were just horror and ferocity as the news sometimes leads one to think, it wouldn't even be worth racking one's brains, wondering why everything that happens there can happen. I segreti d'Italia. Storie, luoghi, personaggi nel romanzo di una nazione, Rizzoli, Bur, Milano, 2014, p. 109. ISBN 978-88-58-66836-8 Di tutte le maschere italiane, quella di Pulcinella è la più ricca, la più intensa e articolata. Il personaggio affonda nell'humus della città e della sua plebe, tra le più vivaci del Mediterraneo. Troppo vivace, secondo molti osservatori, vivace al punto da ignorare le regole più elementari e necessarie del comportamento collettivo, quelle che garantiscono la convivenza. Una vivacità che lascia esplodere senza limiti l'energia degli individui, il ribollire del sangue, la vibratilità d'un pensiero veloce impaziente davanti agli ostacoli, si tratti di un individuo o di una legge, che vanno dunque, leggi o individui che siano, eliminati o aggirati. Molto del bene e del male di Napoli, della sua vitalità, del suo incanto, della sua dannazione, è racchiuso nella maschera di Pulcinella. Of all Italian masks, Pulcinella's is the richest, most intense and articulated. The character sinks into the humus of the city and its plebs, among the liveliest in the Mediterranean. Too lively, according to many observers, lively to the point of ignoring the most basic and necessary rules of collective behavior, those that guarantee coexistence. A vivacity that allows the energy of individuals to explode without limits, the boiling of blood, the vibratility of a quick, impatient thought in the face of obstacles, whether it is an individual or a law, which therefore goes, laws or individuals that are, eliminated or circumvented. Much of the good and evil of Naples, its vitality, its enchantment, its damnation, is contained in the mask of Pulcinella. I segreti d'Italia. Storie, luoghi, personaggi nel romanzo di una nazione, (p. 117) Fellini aveva tratto ispirazione [per il film La dolce vita] da un'inchiesta di Manlio Cancogni pubblicata pochi mesi prima dal settimanale L'Espresso. Il titolo era Capitale corrotta= Nazione infetta; proprio di questo si trattava; il regista italiano, come i grandi narratori francesi o russi dell'Ottocento, aveva interpretato gli indizi acutamente raccolti dal cronista per trasformarli in una narrazione che li trascendeva facendone denuncia e ammonimento Fellini had drawn inspiration [for the film La Dolce Vita] from an investigation by Manlio Cancogni published a few months earlier by the weekly magazine L'Espresso. The title was Corrupt Capital = Infected Nation; that's exactly what it was about; the Italian director, like the great French or Russian storytellers of the nineteenth century, had interpreted the clues astutely collected by the chronicler to transform them into a narrative that transcended them, making them denunciations and warnings. Roma, eri così bella nel 1960... O no?, Rep.repubblica.it, 20 June 2018. Il comico Beppe Grillo ha dato vita al consueto paradosso di chi dice di voler fare "antipolitica". In realtà il suo è stato un riuscito rito liberatorio, versione civilizzata di quelli celebrati presso certe tribù primitive dove lo stregone che aveva sbagliato o abusato veniva linciato dai suoi ex fedeli e, in qualche caso, mangiato. Grillo ha colto l'ondata di risentimento che c'è nel paese mettendo a bollire in un unico calderone richieste sacrosante e altre di chiaro sapore qualunquistico. È vero che grida vendetta vedere in parlamento dei condannati a pene definitive. Ma prendersela in blocco con le case degli onorevoli è invece demagogia; nel mucchio ci sono autentiche situazioni di privilegio accanto ad altre legittime che risalgono a decenni fa. Attaccare in blocco i partiti è una sciocchezza. I partiti sono stati i tiranti, i tendini di un paese molto diviso, spesso hanno garantito loro, in mancanza d'altro, una riconoscibilità nazionale. Non i partiti in sé ma la loro degenerazione, la loro trasformazione in macchine elettorali o di sottogoverno, è la malattia politica da curare; così come la presa soffocante d'una politica degenerate sulla vita di singoli cittadini e delle loro imprese. Il guaio per Grillo, e per tutti noi, è che quando s'è consumato il rito liberatorio, dopo aver ucciso lo stregone o avergli gridato in piazza un vituperio, l'antipolitica non conta più niente e non porta a niente. L'antipolitica raccoglie un sintomo, lo interpreta, lo potenzia ma non ha nessuna terapia da proporre. Fino a quando non diventa essa stessa politica. È questo il paradosso. Comedian Beppe Grillo has created the usual paradox of those who say they want to be "anti-political." In reality, his was a successful liberating rite, a civilized version of those celebrated among certain primitive tribes where the sorcerer who had erred or abused was lynched by his former followers and, in some cases, eaten. Grillo has seized on the wave of resentment in the country by boiling sacrosanct requests and others with a clearly qualunquistic flavor in a single cauldron. It is true that it cries out for revenge to see those sentenced to final sentences in parliament. But taking it out in bulk with the houses of the honourable is instead demagoguery; in the pile there are genuine situations of privilege alongside other legitimate ones which go back decades. Bloc attacking parties is nonsense. Parties have been the tie rods, the sinews of a very divided country, often guaranteeing them, for lack of anything else, national recognizability. Not the parties themselves but their degeneration, their transformation into electoral or sub-government machines, is the political disease to be cured; as is the suffocating grip of a degenerate policy on the lives of individual citizens and their businesses. The trouble for Grillo, and for all of us, is that when the liberating rite has taken place, after having killed the sorcerer or shouted reproach at him in the square, anti-politics no longer matters and leads nowhere. Anti-politics collects a symptom, interprets it, enhances it but has no therapy to propose. Until it becomes politics itself. This is the paradox. la Repubblica, 11 September 2007. Io vado spesso a parlare nelle scuole. Su una classe di 25 ragazzi e ragazze ne vedo due o tre che hanno la scintilla. Il resto sta lì, come capre. I often go to talk in schools. Out of a class of 25 boys and girls I see two or three who have the spark. The rest is there, like goats. From an interview by Monica Mondo at the TV programme Soul, Tv2000, 2 January 2016. Video available on Youtube.com. La guerra ha un duplice connotato: da una parte, orrore, infamia, abiezione, violenza scatenata nella maniera più brutale; dall'altra possibilità di accendere sentimenti altissimi. Tutti voi, tutti noi abbiamo letto Guerra e pace di Tolstoj. Quante pagine ci sono! La scena di quando il generale Bragatjon che passa in rassegna l'Armata Russa, si ferma e viene avanti l'icona della Vergine Nera, e tutto l'esercito cade in ginocchio, compreso Bragatjon. tutto l'esercito cade in ginocchio davanti a quell'immagine dipinta su una tavoletta di legno. Tolstoj descrive un afflato collettivo, enorme, smisurato. Affianca decine di migliaia di uomini, per un attimo, li rende compartecipi dello stesso destino. War has a dual connotation: on the one hand, horror, infamy, abjection, violence unleashed in the most brutal manner; on the other, the possibility of igniting extremely high feelings. All of you, all of us have read Tolstoy's War and Peace. How many pages are there! The scene when General Bragatjon, reviewing the Russian Army, stops and the icon of the Black Virgin comes forward, and the entire army falls to its knees, including Bragatjon. The entire army falls to its knees before that image painted on a wooden tablet. Tolstoy describes a collective inspiration, enormous, immeasurable. He stands alongside tens of thousands of men, for a moment, making them sharers of the same destiny.[ Senza filtri, 26 giugno 2019. Video available on Youtube.com (min. 11:40-13:20). [Mi chiede questo signore in sala: perché un non credente come Lei è così affascinato dalla figura di Gesù?] Beh, io sono ateo, nel senso che le teologie di tutte le religioni, compreso l'ebraismo, mi sembrano delle costruzioni. [...] Intendiamoci bene, delle costruzioni geniali, ma fatte dagli uomini. Ma non è vero che sono non credente: io credo fortemente in una possibile spiritualità, umana, degli uomini, e ovviamente -come è naturale che sia- tanto più ci credo quanto più invecchio. Non per il motivo banale: sei più vicino alla morte, e dunque ti raccomandi. No, io sono convinto che con la morte tutto finisce, e non c'è nulla. Polvere, e polvere: tra l'inizio e la fine c'è questo lampo della vita, e, poi, niente prima e niente dopo. No, perché siccome inevitabilmente nel corso di un'esistenza, ognuno di noi ha fatto delle azioni riprovevoli, ecco con la maturità, una certa maggiore rassicurazione, uno credo che debba pagare i suoi debiti. E io i miei debiti li pago, cerco di pagarli, cercando di non nuocere a nessuno, di rispettare gli altri, di rispettare l'ambiente nel quale vivo, di non offendere, anche nelle polemiche che devo affrontare come giornalista di essere corretto. Questa è la mia forma di spiritualità. [This gentleman in the room asks me: why is a non-believer like you so fascinated by the figure of Jesus?] Well, I'm an atheist, in the sense that theologies of all religions, including Judaism, seem like constructions to me. [...] Let's be clear, brilliant constructions, but made by men. But it's not true that I'm a non-believer: I strongly believe in a possible spirituality, human, of men, and obviously - as is natural - the more I believe in it the older I get. Not for the trivial reason: you are closer to death, and therefore you recommend yourself. No, I am convinced that with death everything ends, and there is nothing. Dust, and dust: between the beginning and the end there is this flash of life, and, then, nothing before and nothing after. No, because since inevitably in the course of an existence, each of us has done reprehensible actions, here with maturity, a certain greater reassurance, I believe one must pay his debts. And I pay my debts, I try to pay them, trying not to harm anyone, to respect others, to respect the environment in which I live, not to offend, even in the controversies I face as a journalist, of being correct. This is my form of spirituality. 'Pordenonelegge.it, 29 October 2015. Video available on Youtube.com (min. 33:20-35:12).Mi piace che la Chiesa Cattolica si occupi meno della politica italiana, cosa che per anni ha fatto in maniera asfissiante.I like that the Catholic Church is less concerned with Italian politics, something it has done in a suffocating manner for years. From an interview by Monica Mondo at the TV programme Soul, Tv2000, 2 January 2016. Video available on Youtube.com.Nella Costituzione del '48, l'aggettivo "sacro" è usato solo due volte: una delle due volte è usato per dire che «la difesa della patria è sacro dovere del cittadino».In the Constitution of 1948, the adjective "sacred" is used only twice: one of the two times is used to say that «the defense of the homeland is the sacred duty of the citizen».Senza filtri, 26 giugno 2019. Video available on Youtube.com (min. 11:40-13:20).Napoli è una tappa fondamentale, la racconto nelle sue contraddizioni e nella sua estrema vitalità, anche lì [...], Napoli e i napoletani rappresentano nel bene e nel male un'Italia al quadrato.Naples is a fundamental stage, I tell it in its contradictions and in its extreme vitality, even there [...], Naples and the Neapolitans represent for better or worse an Italy squared. Massimo Romano, Corrado Augias presenta il suo libro a Napoli. Corrado Augias: "Napoli tappa fondamentale del mio viaggio nell'Italia disunita", napolitoday.it, 29 November 2017, Video available on napolitoday.it (min. 1:00-1:23).Oggi la questione è più drammatica del previsto, dato che il liberalismo statualistico privo di riferimenti consuetudinari diventa mera immagine speculare del più efferato sistema bicamerale.Today the issue is more dramatic than expected, given that state liberalism devoid of customary references becomes a mere mirror image of the most brutal bicameral system.la Repubblica, 15 December 2010Paolo Borsellino, il giorno dopo la telefonata dell’aviere a Telefono giallo mi chiamò e riaprì l’inchiesta su Ustica. [I militari avevano] visto perfettamente i tracciati. Solo che il giorno dopo il maresciallo responsabile del servizio ci disse di farci gli affari nostri e di non avere più seguito in quella vicenda. La verità è questa: ci fu ordinato di starci zitti.Paolo Borsellino, the day after the airman called Telefono Giallo, called me and reopened the investigation into Ustica. [The military had] seen the tracks perfectly. Only the next day the marshal in charge of the service told us to mind our own business and to have no further follow-up in that affair. The truth is this: we were ordered to keep quiet.Ustica, Augias a La Confessione (Rai3) di Gomez: “Dopo la telefonata dell’aviere a Telefono giallo, Borsellino mi chiamò e riaprì l’inchiesta”, Il Fatto Quotidiano , 5 March 2024.Privato del suo mantello teologico Gesù diventa una figura più affascinante, perché più drammatica, più fragile, una figura da amare, che si capisce molto meglio senza fede. [...] Noi ci limitiamo ad analizzare Gesù dal punto di vista storico, al pari di Alessandro Magno o Giulio Cesare, altre grandi figure che hanno cambiato il corso degli eventi: se davanti a questo la fede barcolla, povera fede. Si tratta comunque di reazioni che rivelano intolleranza, come lo sono state quelle sul libro di Dan Brown, che pure dal punto di vista delle verità storica è facile da smontare, e questo non va affatto bene.Deprived of his theological cloak, Jesus becomes a more fascinating figure, because he is more dramatic, more fragile, a figure to be loved, which is understood much better without faith. [...] We limit ourselves to analyzing Jesus from a historical point of view, like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar, other great figures who changed the course of events: if faith staggers before this, poor faith. However, these are reactions that reveal intolerance, as were those in Dan Brown's book, which, even from the point of view of historical truth, is easy to dismantle, and this is not good at all. I gesuiti contro il libro di Augias: "Attacco frontale alla fede cristiana", Repubblica.it, 30 November 2006.Scrive molto, Bruno. Ovunque si trovi nel suo eterno peregrinare entra ed esce dalle Università iscrivendosi a volte come allievo, altre come docente, e ovunque si segnala per la vivacità del temperamento e l'ingegno brillante. Né scrive solo di filosofia o sulla mnemotecnica. Scrive anche per il teatro, componendo Il Candelaio. Vi appare un mondo corrotto e violento del quale si ride, ma si ride con l'amarezza che qualche volta noi riserviamo alle satire politiche dei nostri tempi che ci fanno sorridere, ma ci fanno sorridere amaramente.He writes a lot, Bruno. Wherever he finds himself in his eternal wanderings, he enters and leaves universities, sometimes enrolling as a student, sometimes as a teacher, and everywhere he stands out for his lively temperament and brilliant ingenuity. Nor does he write only about philosophy or mnemonics. He also writes for the theatre, composing Il Candelaio. There appears to you a corrupt and violent world that we laugh at, but we laugh with the bitterness that we sometimes reserve for the political satires of our times that make us smile, but make us smile bitterly.Le fiamme e la ragione, Promo Music, 2008. [Sugli scontri e l'ostruzionismo in Parlamento da parte del Movimento 5 Stelle] Si tratta di squadrismo inconsapevole. Di Battista dice di essere nato nel '78 e di non avere quindi ricordi del Fascismo. Ma il Fascismo non era poi una cosa così diversa da quanto si sta vedendo in questi giorni in Parlamento. Era antiparlamentarista, movimentista, voleva la piazza e voleva portare la piazza in Parlamento. Mussolini stesso diceva: "Potevo fare di quest'aula sorda e grigia un bivacco di manipoli". Chi non sa cosa è stato il Fascismo, ripete quegli stilemi.[...] Questi giovani sanno poco di quello che è successo negli anni del Fascismo. Senza saperlo, ripetono comportamenti che ci hanno portato alla rovina. Secondo me è più pericoloso un fascista inconsapevole, rispetto a fascisti dichiarati come Storace e La Russa.[On the clashes and obstructionism in Parliament by the Five Star Movement] This is unconscious squadrism. Di Battista says he was born in '78 and therefore has no memories of Fascism. But Fascism was not such a different thing from what is being seen in Parliament these days. He was anti-parliamentarian, a movementist, he wanted the square and he wanted to take the square to Parliament. Mussolini himself said: "I could make this deaf and gray room a bivouac of maniples." Anyone who doesn't know what Fascism was repeats those stylistic features.[...] These young people know little about what happened during the Fascist years. Without knowing it, they repeat behaviors that led to our ruin. In my opinion, an unconscious fascist is more dangerous than avowed fascists like Storace and La Russa.Alessandro Di Battista, Corrado Augias e lo "scontro" a distanzia che infiamma il web, Giornalettismo.com, 1 February 2014. [Sui detrattori del ddl Cirinnà che oppongono l'omogenitorialità alla famiglia della tradizione cristiana] Se lei considera in quale famiglia è nato Gesù, lei si rende conto [che] Maria concepisce da un'entità sacra al di fuori del matrimonio, Giuseppe adotta – perché "padre putativo" vuol dire "padre adottivo" – un figlio che non è suo e lo fa per amore di sua moglie. E davanti a questa situazione [...] il disegno di legge Cirinnà diventa acqua fresca.[On the detractors of the Cirinnà bill who oppose homoparenting to the family of Christian tradition] If she considers in which family Jesus was born, she realizes [that] Mary conceives from a sacred entity outside of marriage, Joseph adopts – because "putative father" means "adoptive father" – a child who is not his and does so for the love of his wife. And faced with this situation [...] the Cirinnà bill becomes fresh water. From the TV programme diMartedì, 9 February 2016. Video available on YouTube.com (min. 10:20). [Intervistatore:] Non sarebbe meglio se quelli di Charlie Hebdo si dessero una regolata? [Augias:] «Non sono d’accordo. Non tanto in nome dei principi di libertà che da un paio di secoli sono a fondamento della civiltà occidentale; nemmeno per ragioni pragmatiche dettate dalle circostanze. Mi preoccupa il principio: se accettiamo che la libertà di satira abbia un limite, chi stabilirà dove si colloca il confine?».[Interviewer:] Wouldn't it be better if Charlie Hebdo got a grip? [Augias:] «I disagree. Not so much in the name of the principles of freedom that have been the foundation of Western civilization for a couple of centuries; not even for pragmatic reasons dictated by circumstances. I'm concerned about the principle: if we accept that freedom of satire has a limit, who will determine where the boundary lies?». da Lettere, La Repubblica, 1 November 2020. Interviews Lontana da Omero, vicina a noi, l'Odissea di Nolan è tutta politica, repubblica.it, 20 July 2026. Nolan [...] non è solo un regista di “blockbuster” come dicono gli americani ovvero autore di prodotti di grandissima popolarità in grado di sbancare i botteghini. Basta pensare a Oppenheimer. Nolan nasconde sempre molti significati nei suoi film, lo fa anche in questa Odissea. Nolan [...] is not just a director of “blockbusters” as the Americans say, that is, the author of very popular products capable of breaking the box office. Just think of "Oppenheimer". Nolan always hides many meanings in his films, he does so in this "Odyssey" too. Abbiamo distrutto una cultura, dice Ulisse, e non dovevamo farlo. Abbiamo peccato contro gli dèi e contro le leggi della civiltà. Non credo che, in un'opera d'arte, ci sia condanna più esplicita dell'attuale politica estera americana cieca, aggressiva e rabbiosa. We destroyed a culture, says Ulysses, and we shouldn't have done it. We have sinned against the gods and against the laws of civilization. I don't think that, in a work of art, there is more explicit condemnation than the current blind, aggressive, and angry American foreign policy. Letto in filigrana, il film di Chris Nolan contiene insomma numerosi, trasparenti riferimenti all'attualità americana e mondiale (ci sono anche da noi le tentazioni di violenza vendicatrice). Ecco perché questa Odissea si conferma lontana dal poema omerico, trovando la sua vera forza in un atto d'accusa contro la cultura Maga e il forsennato presidente che la incarna. Lontano da Omero, vicino, molto vicino, a noi. Read in filigree, Chris Nolan's film contains numerous transparent references to current American and world events (we also have temptations of avenging violence). This is why this "Odyssey" confirms its distance from the Homeric poem, finding its true strength in an indictment against the Maga culture and the frantic president who embodies it. Far from Homer, close, very close, to us. Books I segreti di Roma Corrado Augias, I segreti di Roma. Storie, luoghi e personaggi di una capitale, Mondadori, 2006. ISBN 880455908X Incipit Where to begin the story of a universum like Rome? In a contradictory city like this, laden with all the glory, all the ruins, and all the dust that the centuries have left behind, it is possible to discern the traces of every human event or feeling, the boldness and cowardice, the generosity and ignavia, the resourcefulness and shady softness of the infingers. There is no event in known history that has not left a mark, a scar, a scratch on its rind. Rome will never be the city of order, of symmetries, of the clear unfolding of events according to a plan, the coherent outcome of a project. If the history of men is nothing but violence and din, Rome has been the mirror of this history over the centuries, capable of reflecting every detail with painful fidelity, including those from which one would gladly turn away. Quotes Dante makes Cato a symbol of moral freedom, of firmness of character, of a sense of justice, of dedication to the common good. Faced with his great morality, the fact that he was a pagan and a suicide becomes rightly negligible. (2007, p. 77) Crimes that present aspects that have never been fully clarified (and never will be) are the most intense, from a narrative point of view. (2007, p. 94) About sixty people took part in the conspiracy. Among them, as in any political plot, there was everything: Pompeians who wanted to avenge their leader, former Caesarians who had abandoned him also out of personal resentment, professional tormentors, defenders of the Republic. Its leaders became Cassius Longinus and Marcus Brutus. The latter was the nephew of Cato, perhaps the son of Caesar; in any case, his mother had been his favorite lover for years, and so had his sister. It can be understood that he had complex feelings towards the dictator Brutus. Dante will cast him into hell (canto XXXIV, vv. 64-65) among the greatest traitors; Shakespeare will instead make him a hero of freedom. Sentiments aside, it can be said that the conspirators were almost all upright men, who moved out of sincere love for the Republic, although Cicero, in his cynical wisdom, wrote that they acted «with a virile soul, but with childish intelligence». Their idea was that, with the tyrant killed, the Republic would return to its ancient splendor, to the austerity of customs, to that uncompromising and rustic morality that had made Rome great. Caesar had seen further; he knew that that Republic would never return and that he might as well entrust Rome to men who were great in themselves: himself and his adopted son Gaius Octavius (Octavian Augustus). (2007, p. 95) The entrance, at the ninth kilometer of Tuscolana, is still the same as it once was, characterized (and dated) by the rounded architectural lines of the twenty-year Fascist period. I'm talking about a mythical place, Cinecittà, a happy invention from the very name, one of the few neologisms truly guessed in a language like ours that doesn't lend itself much to lexical innovations. (2007, p. 182) It is said that, during the days of filming, the great totò arrived at Cinecittà very early. One morning he arrived so early that he found the study door still closed. The watchman, seeing him wandering around restless, rushed over shouting: «I arrive, Totò!». The actor didn't like it at all, and he retorted: «Call me prince, I demand it.» Antonio de Curtis, aka Totò, had throughout his life the naive claim to enjoy the right to the title of «Imperial Highness» as a descendant of the throne of Byzantium. His names included Gagliardi, Griffo, Focas, Comneno. In that case, however, the guardian himself had the last word, who promptly replied: «There are many princes, Totò only one». The answer was well received and from that moment on the cunning guardian was allowed to address him as Totò. (2007, p. 183) To the waiter who had served him coffee in the dressing room, Totò one day gave 1000 lire, leaving the rest as tip. Word spread and as soon as Totò ordered a coffee, three or four waiters rushed over. One of them, the oldest, however, never managed to finish first. Upon learning of the fact, the actor ordered that he be given a 200-meter advantage over the others, so he too managed to earn the 1000 lire twice. (2007, p. 183) It can be said that there was mutual attraction and influence between Rome and the cinema: cinema changed the city, and vice versa. The capital has in fact strengthened the ability of Italian cinema to become a realistic mirror of the times both in the most obvious sense (war films in times of war, fascist films in the fascist era) and in a deeper sense: for example, it has been able to capture and transfer to the screen, making them become stories, certain aspects, moods or needs that have been so elevated to national characteristics. (2007, p. 184) The writer Alessandro Manzoni, a distinguished exponent of liberal Catholicism, expressed his satisfaction when the Piedmontese, in 1860, occupied the Papal State. His daughter Vittoria left this testimony: «When news of the Romagna expedition arrived in September, Dad was no longer content with contentment: he cried, laughed, clapped his hands, shouting Viva Garibaldi! ... Dad was convinced that the loss of temporal power should be a providential measure for the Church, which, freed from all earthly care, could better exercise its spiritual dominion». Manzoni, and also the Catholic philosopher Antonio Rosmini, were obviously right. At the beginning of the 21st century even a defender of the «doctrine of the faith» like Cardinal Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI, was willing to admit the enormous advantage that the loss of dominion over some territories had represented for the Church. This is demonstrated by the vitality of Catholicism which, in worlds far from the environment of the Roman Curia, forgetting every temporal legacy, bases its authority on spirituality and the relief brought to the humblest. (2007, p. 225) Leggere Corrado Augias, Leggere. Perché i libri ci rendono migliori, più allegri e più liberi, Mondadori, Milano, 2007. Incpit Many years ago I read a sentence by Marcel Proust that immediately seemed very beautiful to me but, to tell the truth, also a bit excessive. It was the period in which, as the poet Giorgio Caproni writes, life comes into its own most intensely: "Oh, height/ never again reached by the fire of the heart". Proust's words, then, seemed too far from that "fire of the heart." They said: "Are there not days of our childhood that we have lived as intensely as those we believe we have lost without living them, the days spent in the company of a very dear book." Quotes Books are by their very nature democratic and critical tools: there are many of them, they often contradict each other, they allow for choice and reasoning. For this reason too, they have always been opposed by theocratic thought, censored, prohibited, and often burned at the stake along with their authors. (p. 45) A young person who wants to have a reasonable portion of the future ahead of him should dominate (I say "dominate," not stammer) at least three linguistic levels: the local dialect, when it exists; the national language; a foreign language. (p. 39) The novels of Hugo are powerful, filled with characters leaping out of the page, figurines of a secular nativity scene, of a profane representation on the sacredness of earthly life, childhood, evil, justice, love, the men of God. (p. 41) Language is a brilliant convention, words mean something only because we all agree that it should mean. (p. 11) literature has no messages or moral values to propose, and when it does, it is a kind of bad literature. Its sole task is to represent the contradictory experience of the whole and nothingness of life, of its value and its absurdity. (p. 113) Contemporary life, apparently so full of light (in every sense), actually contains vast areas of shadow, where only literature and arts are able to penetrate; they will certainly not be able to illuminate it in its entirety, much less change its connotation, but they can help us perceive its extension and complexity, which would already be a remarkable achievement. (p. 113) We are used to giving words like "silence" and "loneliness" a negative, melancholy meaning. In the case of reading this is not the case, on the contrary that silence and that solitude mark the proud condition of the human being only with his thoughts, capable of forgetting "every trouble" for a few hours. (p. 106) See alsoInquiry on Jesus'' External links Augias, Corrado Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:Atheists Category:Journalists from Italy Category:Authors from Italy Category:Television hosts