Domenico Starnone

Lacci—serve to close up our shoes, which in turn contain our feet

Cesare Pavese comes to mind; in his short story “Suicidi” (Suicides) he observes, “La vita è tutto un tradimento”—All of life is betrayal.

contenere (to contain) and contentare (to make happy). Allacciare (to lace, tie down) and lasciare (to leave).

Lacci, which means shoelaces

we are alone in this world, that we hurt one another, that we grow old and forget, but that none of this can be captured, not even by means of literature.

Writ‍­ing is a way to sal‍­vage life, to give it form and mean‍­ing. It ex‍­poses what we have hid‍­den, un‍­earths what we have neg‍­lected, mis‍­re‍­membered, denied. It is a meth‍­od of cap‍­tur‍­ing, of pin‍­ning down, but it is also a form of truth, of lib‍­er‍­a‍­tion.

open this book. Read it, re‍­read it. Dis‍­cov‍­er the words, the voice, the sleight of hand of this bril‍­liant writer.

Call one of your friends, come to the uni‍­ver‍­sity? Start scream‍­ing in front of your col‍­leagues and stu‍­dents?