The former “cannibal” writer who was awarded the annuity: after the Bacchelli Law, hundreds of messages on my phone
The sea of his refuge in Palmi, Calabria, the guitar, the perfume, the dreams of an alchemist, too; then the inevitable irony lurking, but perhaps a little more melancholy than usual; and bulky doses of anger, an undisguised sweetness and still a lot, a lot of poetry. This is what is new – and ancient – in the life of the “cannibal” 25 years later.
Aldo Nove
he will be just 55 next month, and in the meantime he is on the defensive in his splendid aventino north of Reggio Calabria. He is convalescing. And he would have preferred not to talk about him again for the annuity that the government grants, in the name of Riccardo Bacchelli, to “illustrious citizens”, writers, artists, artisans, scientists, musicians, in serious economic and health trouble, such as it was almost forty years ago the author of The mill of the Po.
It does not matter that in that suffocating state of necessity it was preceded by monuments of Italian literature such as Anna Maria Ortese, Roberto Rebora, Guido Ceronetti and Alda Merini, or war heroes, such as Giorgio Perlasca, with whom the country will always remain, to regardless of any financial contribution, in cultural or historical debt. After having published 35 works, including novels, essays, collections of poems, screenplays, the biographies of Mia Martini and Franco Battiato, after having marked a generation and scandalized the previous, Nove suffers from the untimeliness of the messages and phone calls that accumulate hundreds on his mobile phone in the days following the official announcement of this recognition by the Minister for Public Administration, Renato Brunetta. He suffers them, at times, as an annoying intrusion: “What do they want?” My x-rays? ‘
Neither illness nor the inattention of much of the publishing world have prevented him from continuing to write, produce and publish in recent years. To experiment, above all. As in the mid-nineties when, after a degree in Moral Philosophy, the boy from Viggiù, orphan of both parents at the age of 15, displaced the critics and thrilled the public, especially the younger one, with stories Woobinda and other stories with no happy ending (1996, Castelvecchi), followed two years later by Superwoobinda (Einaudi, 1998). One of his opening words has become a classic of fiction: “I killed my parents because they used an absurd bubble bath, Pure & Vegetal …”. A new “current” was born, “for its captivating style, raw language and violent themes”, certifies Treccani. But also for a vision of society and its defects that anticipated its subsequent degenerations.
The “cannibals”, “the pulp of the pulp” had landed, definitions were sought for the prose of Tiziano Scarpa, Niccolò Ammaniti, Alda Teodorani, Aldo Nove, alias of Antonio Centanin. A generality that is a quote. Indeed, a tribute to the Resistance: “Aldo says 26 x 1” was the code message released by the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy (CLNAI) to indicate the day (April 26) and the time (one in the morning) set for the insurrection. Aldo and 2 + 6 + 1 makes Aldo Nove.
“But now I’m trying to change my name,” he announces.
Too bad, it has its own commemorative value.
“Yes, it has its value, but I’m fed up with this pseudonym.”
He once said he has a psychotic ego: do you still think so?
“Perhaps. The ego, what is it? Arthur Rimbaud, a long time ago, already told us that it is something very complex. Franco Battiato remembered that as a child he had refused to carry out the assigned theme and had chosen another title: who am I? The ego is a balloon filled with helium that serves to make it go high and then explodes. Here, the ego is an inflated balloon ».
Is it true that he is a horoscope enthusiast?
“The horoscopes? Rather, esotericism. Which comes close to alchemy studies. And alchemy to chemistry. Like the perfume. I took courses and wrote a book on the subject (In the beginning it was the perfumeSkira 2016, n.d.r.). My mother would have been a perfumer if she hadn’t gotten pregnant when she was young. Ours was a poor family, with a kiosk in Viggiù ».
So did you learn how to make perfumes?
“Yes, in recent years. It is a complex procedure. It approaches that of alchemy, which is considered a naive ancestor of chemistry, which is instead judged sacred. But the root of the two words is the same and means transformation. Even the perfume starts from an idea and gives it a materiality ».
For instance?
He takes out a bottle with an apparently artisanal label and the words “Terroni”: “Here the idea is to understand a synthesis of the South through the sense of smell” he continues seriously. «Basically it is a procedure close to poetry: essences are used instead of words. The medium that brings them to the brain is different: the nose. Smell is a neglected sense, instead it is very important in the relationship with the world. Ignoring it can be dangerous. A bad smell signals that something is wrong ».
What else is he learning?
«I have recently started playing the guitar. A very dear and brilliant person close to me offered me to start a course. Having devoted almost my entire life to poetry, which is music and mathematics, it seemed to me that the time had come to relate to music. I am studying musical scales. You know, I want to be an international rock star, but I can’t. They would take the Bacchelli law away from me », this time he surely jokes, but always without smiling.
He has just published his sonnets in the magazine “Poesia”, founded and directed by Nicola Crocetti, and in September in the white series of Einaudi. Crocetti was perhaps his most devoted publisher since Milo De Angelis discovered his talent, right?
“If we weren’t both heterosexuals, I’d ask Crocetti to marry me. Knowing him is one of the gifts that my life has given me »she finally lets out a short laugh. “The title, Sonnets of the day of quartz, is an expression taken from the poem by Milo De Angelis. But before him, I had already discovered Silvio Raffo, the greatest Italian translator of Emily Dickinson. And then I managed to make myself known by Nanni Balestrini, leader of Group 63 and the most important of my teachers ».
And who did you find out?
“I discovered several authors, now in vogue. More women than men, I must say. It happens that texts arrive that deserve to be taken into consideration and it is nice to promote them ».
Writing, music, sea: what are you missing?
“Life is the constant lack of something. It is such precisely because something is missing. In 1966, a year before I was born, I lacked nothing, right? And there will come a time when I won’t miss anything anymore. But it is the lack that leads us to stay here ».
Fifteen years ago you wrote “My name is Roberta, I am 40 years old, I earn 250 euros a month”: a prophetic text for today’s generations.
«With a managing editor of“ Liberazione ”, at the time when I worked for that newspaper, we realized that a mutation was underway, that a world was disappearing, except for a few privileged ones. That was the first book on insecurity, when flexibility was not yet theorized as a new form of work. Of course, for those with rich families, the transition to flexibility is not tragic. But as Mark Fisher wrote in capitalist realism: humanity will end, capitalism will not ”.
Isn’t that too pessimistic?
“What does it mean to be optimistic?”
Cultivate some hope, maybe?
«In his last interview with Enzo Biagi, Pier Paolo Pasolini said: the word hope is completely deleted from my vocabulary. Having no hope is the best way not to be disappointed: it is a form of wisdom, as Schopenhauer argued. Today I don’t know if a Pasolini could exist. Perhaps he would have a blog, which is continually censored ».
June 15, 2022 (change June 15, 2022 | 07:24)
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