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Rating: You are sitting at your usual desk, leaning forward, in defiance of what orthopedists claim.
You're in the third year of middle school, you're sleepy, and you're busy staring at the itchy underwear peeking out of your classmate who is taking notes, sitting across from you.
It's the art class.
You're studying Picasso, and the teacher is explaining "Guernica." Until an annoying voice rises among the snores.
"Yes, but I could have done that, too."
Then the teacher starts explaining that it's not as simple as it seems. It's the concept behind it that matters, not the drawing itself.
There you go, that smug kid is me.
Yep, those who see something and then think, easy, anyone can do it.
To testify to this, there's: half of the hull of the Titanic 1:250 stranded on top of the wardrobe since I was nine. "Infinite Jest" with the bookmark in the first quarter of the first half of the overall length, shamefully hidden in the nightstand. The translation of "Just Before The Black" by James Franco, which demands revenge; and I prefer not to continue because I'm ashamed.
All seemingly easy things, but conceptually difficult.
Interviewing someone, I recently discovered, is the same.
Yes, yes, easy, but go get what interests you.
The really difficult part is asking relevant yet probing questions that can capture the interviewee's attention and push them to speak freely about what truly interests them.
If you succeed, congratulations, the interview becomes an interesting chat; if not, you have a boring Q&A in your hands.
Add to this the fact that not everyone is really willing to open up, to say what they think, but rather prefer to brush off the topic with a brilliant answer that reveals nothing.
I'm giving you a heads-up because, reading the following, you'll get the impression of a simple Q&A; of which shortcomings, I am the direct responsible.
Vitaliano Trevisan, a sharp writer and a perceptive thinker, published his first novel in 2002, "I Quindicimila Passi," and now releases with Laterza "Tristissimi Giardini."
-Your path that led you to writing was rather original.
You said that before the age of thirty-three you had never written anything. What made you change direction? And what was your relationship with books in general?
I never changed direction; I just waited. The relationship with books has always been good. I appreciate beautiful editions, but I'm only interested in the content.
-Who are the authors you love the most, and why?
Two above all: Samuel Barclay Beckett and Thomas Bernhard. Both, not coincidentally, also playwrights. The reason: both write "out loud"; that is, their writing, whether narrative or dramaturgical, always seeks a voice. Just as religion needs mysticism, but mysticism does not need religion, so writing needs the word, but the word does not need writing. Anyone who sets out to write should never forget this. The two authors in question, in my opinion, have never forgotten it.
-What is it that you want to convey through a story?
Nothing except the story.
-The last book you enjoyed? Which one would you recommend avoiding?
I'll tell you two: "Ambienti Animali E Ambienti Umani," by Jacob Von Uexkull, Quodlibet editions and "Architettura Dell'Occupazione," by Eyal Weizman, Bruno Mondadori editions. As for what to avoid, I couldn't say. I only read books that I like.
-You are from Veneto, from Sandrigo, what is your relationship with the province? What do you think of the idea of Veneto (essentially the league and work) that is often circulated through television?
My relationship is that I live there, in the sense that I always go back. The idea of Veneto that circulates is, like everything concerning television, too influenced by the medium to waste time talking about it. When the medium becomes an end, everything that the misunderstanding produces cannot be corrected.
-Plans for the future?
Continue to write. Possibly write better.
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