“I didn’t compare myself to Jack London. I wanted to make a comparison between a different way of telling love. The two protagonists, Martin Eden as Stefano Mancini, have changed for the love of a woman. I’m sorry that many people can criticize without having read the research I did”. This is how the writer replies, questioned by time.news Frederick Moccia, commenting on the news of his degree in Modern Literature at the Marconi University achieved with a thesis on the comparison of the vision of the concept of ‘love’ between Moccia himself and Jack London. After Moccia’s announcement on social media, as well as compliments on the result, the 59-year-old Roman writer was joined by aan avalanche of ironic and irreverent posts on what has been interpreted as a rash comparison.
Moccia replies by telling an anecdote: “Once I went into a pharmacy to buy some aspirin and the saleswoman said to me: ‘Are you Moccia? I didn’t like your books’. So out of curiosity I asked her: ‘but which in didn’t you like it in particular?’, and she replied… ‘No, no, I haven’t read them…’ Well, I smiled but I could never make a criticism without knowing what I’m talking about“.
On the thesis that Moccia presented, and which together with the degree course earned him the vote of 107 out of 110, he explained to time.news: “You must never stop studying. I wanted to thank Jack London and all the teachers who made me love to read and write. In the thesis I explain how even Jack London was criticized while he was doing nothing but tell his life. The same happened to me when I wrote ‘Three meters above the sky’. The publishing houses rejected it, they considered it excessive and yet it was my life. I published it out of my own pocket and over time it has become such an incredible success that it was published this year in America!”, explains the author. Who concludes with a warning: “The thesis is an invitation to everyone to believe in themselves”.