Thursday,
August 24, 2006
Bloggers Respond to "Guide to the Italian Mind"
The
ANNOTICO Report
I
always thought Italians were easy to figure out, but when you are an American,
with a Beer and Bowling Mentality, naturally The Italians can be a Puzzle,
within a Conundrum, wrapped in an Enigma. Italians have 2500 years of
Culture, we Americans seem to be trying to get
started. Italians have learned to distrust governments, we Americans are
so niave, invoke the word patriotism, and our brain
gets short circuited, and we act like sheep being led to slaughter.
Of
course Italian Americans sort of distort the image of Italians in the minds of
Americans.
In
any event you must read "La Bella Figura: A
Field Guide to the Italian Mind" By Beppe Severgnini.
Below
are some Bloggers Comments re the "Italian
Mind"
WHEN NOT IN
Dot. Commonweal
A
Blog By the Magazine Editors
Joseph
A. Komonchak
August
24, 2006
The New York
Times had
a review of LA BELLA FIGURA: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind
By Beppe Severgnini, on
In
This is an
approach to laws that most Americans have some difficulty with. People here
stop at red lights even though it
I
The Responses
were:
Posted
by Patrick Molloy
on August 24, 2006, 4:15 pm
It
aappears that the book
Posted
by Bill
Mazzella
on August 24, 2006, 4:28 pm
The
Italians also do not take the church too seriously. In fact they are rather contemptuos of it. I used to argue with my father and
grandfather about this. My father said the church was a bunch of racketeers and
my grandfather objected to my entering the seminary.
Posted
by Joseph
F. Gannon
on August 24, 2006, 5:10 pm
....The
NYT reporters in
Posted
by Susan
Gannon
on August 24, 2006, 6:02 pm
I
have heard this sort of easy-going attitude referred to as "Romanita", I think, and have heard it blamed for
considerable discomfort given to pious straight-arrow types who prefer having a
very few, very reasonable rules they expect to follow. There is a belief,
(perhaps a folk belief?) that those with a laxer view of their responsibilities
don
Posted
by
on August 24, 2006, 6:08 pm
Reminds me of the story about how to distinguish between
Canadians and Americans in
Posted
by Scott
on August 24, 2006, 7:01 pm
In
Posted
by Bill
Mazzella
on August 24, 2006, 7:55 pm
Luigi
Barzini probably wrote the classic on Italians in his
1964 book "The Italians." His explaining of "bella
figura" is priceless. Even the prostitutes in
"Italians have always excelled in all activities in which the appearance
is predominant: architecture, decorations, landscape gardening, the figurative
arts, pageantry, fireworks, ceremonies, opera, and now industrial design, stage
jewellery, fashions, and the cinema." Luigi Barzini, The Italians
Posted
by Bernard Dauenhauer
on August 24, 2006, 8:02 pm
About
30 years ago, I entertained a Belgian (Flemish) Norbertine.
While driving him around, he asked me what the signs saying "35
Miles" or "45 Miles" meant. When I told him that they set
speed limits, he replied: "That
Posted
by Joseph A. Komonchak
on August 24, 2006, 8:15 pm
And
then there is the difference between Anglo-Saxons and Italians with regard to
lines. "Mind the queue" has no Italian equivalent...........And then
there is the traffic around the Piazza Venezia in
Posted
by Jean Raber
on August 24, 2006, 9:15 pm
Susan,
I hope Roberto Benigni reads your post. I can imagine
the movie that might ensure, with him playing both the part of the lax
rule-maker having a laugh at the expense of the straight-arrow rule-follower.
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