Dante Virgili
La distruzione

It's curious to note how the figure of Dante Virgili continues to arouse, albeit in an underground way, a morbid interest. Certainly, we are dealing with a literary case of those obscure ones. Virgili is known to some literature enthusiasts for having written “La Distruzione”, an apocalyptic novel that prefigured September 11. In truth, it is this visionary ability of his that has brought his name back to the literary chronicles. The protagonist was a character, alter ego of the same Virgili, nostalgic for National Socialism and Hitler, who during the Suez Crisis of 1956 wished for the imminent destruction of the planet. It is an avant-garde novel – the punctuation is absent - not easy to read, revealing the pathological character of its author. The character is passionate, besides the Nazi narrative, also about sadomasochistic practices. It is a nihilistic novel – and in this sense “Nietzschean” - apocalyptic and decadent. Perhaps it's mediocre, but nevertheless, it contains visionary impulses absent in much of the Italian literature of the period and even today. If I remember correctly, I first heard about Virgili in an issue of the magazine Pulp. Recently, on a blog curated by Marco Moretti, also a "Virgilian" by chance, I happened to read an analysis in which according to the author Dante Virgili, in reality, never existed. In this article - https://perpendiculum.blogspot.com/search?q=dante+virgili – I am also mentioned as “l’amico C.”. In fact, it was I who recommended to Marco Moretti the reading of Antonio Franchini's book “Cronaca della fine” where the publishing story of “La Distruzione” was retraced.

I thought I could dispel his doubts, but that was not the case. According to Moretti Virgili would be a fictional literary creation of the well-known writer Ferruccio Parazzoli. In reality, the same opinion is shared by Gerardo De Stefano, who with Andrea Lombardi, manages the Facebook page “Salviamo la Distruzione. Le ossa inquiete di Dante Virgili” (https://www.facebook.com/salviamoladistruzione). The main merit of the two curators was having reprinted for Off Topic editions both “La Distruzione” – the original copy’s value in the collection market reaches about 200 Euros, while even a reprint by Pequod is now rare - as well as his second novel “Metodo della sopravvivenza”. De Stefano, however, has no doubts about the existence of Virgili, having indeed found both the birth certificate and the burial one (the death certificate was lost in the transition from analog to digital). Among other things, he has the merit of having restored Virgili’s grave – which now bears his name – and prevented his bones from ending up in the common ossuary. Indeed, the letters Franchini talks about in “Cronaca della fine” seem to have been lost in the Mondadori archives, and some claim they are mere fiction. I do not believe that Virgili's books were written by Parazzoli. The latter is a Catholic writer with a sensitivity far removed from the sadistic excesses of a book like “La Distruzione”, but I can always be wrong. “La Distruzione” has also been recently reprinted by Mondadori with a preface by Roberto Saviano, which is quite out of place. But in the end, does it really matter if the books by Dante Virgili were actually written by him? All literature is a mask and what remains in the end is art.

Dante Virgili "La distruzione" Off Topic - 2015