In a country where a perennial tavern laugh resonates and which has elevated ignorance to a discreet status symbol, in the end it is almost pleasant to witness the failure of a book fair. If then the cultural horizon of the fair ranges between the Hotel Le Dune in Sabaudia, the novels of Igiaba Scego and the Optalidons which are no longer what they once were, then the subtle pleasure becomes ecstasy. Personally, we prefer the defeats of the left to the triumphs of the right.
And this is what happened to More free books, one of those places that justify the existence of intellectuals who write because they have nothing to say and who have something to say only because they write.
Anyway. At the small publishers’ fair directed by Chiara Valerio, who is very good at explaining ideas that you don’t understand using words that you don’t know, everything happened: the philosopher convicted of harassment became star of the anti-harassment edition, the bluff boycott of Zerocalcare, the flop of attendance, the drop in sales and a priceless settling of accounts between left-wing publishers, the Murgian intelligentsia and the feminist press which is trying to overtake the right on the right.
But it is indicative. The political left has been in crisis for some time; now the cultural one is starting to drown. Comrade Bersani would say that it is difficult to be a dolphin when the water is finished.
Result. Chiara Valerio is already confirmed at the helm of the next edition. Sin. For a moment we hoped for Guillermo Mariotto.
PS. The problem is not having “more books”. But better ones.