Sunday,
October 08, 2006
The
ANNOTICO Report
Annually
"On The
Road" was one of the first American novels translated into Italian, not
long after the first, Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms",
and it carries a special resonance in
The
Italians are "the most cuckoo for Kerouac," though he is embraced
throughout
"To the
Italians, it seems like he's the Clint Eastwood -- the maverick -- of the
second half of 20th century literature. I think they relate to the jazz, the
cosmopolitan-ness of The Beats. The Beats were of the
American Earth but they had a sophisticated worldliness and I think that
Europeans relate to that."
"Kerouac
represents the sense of freedom all the young men have. It is the myth of
travel without a target, without a goal. It has a big sense of liberation that
still attracts young people to this. Every young man wants to be this."
"The first
thing, ours is a small country, You don't have the
chance to travel for hours and days without reaching a destination. You can go
from coast to coast in three hours, and from Milano to
Luigi Grella, the editor of Airone,
says Kerouac's appeal springs from "his individualism. We are an anarchic
people. We have a problem respecting the rules. We look at rules with
benevolence."
ITALIANS
KEEP THE BEAT STRONG
By
David Perry
October
8, 2006
Jack Kerouac's On The Road is his
quintessential work, the American Myth writ bold, large and fast from a
passenger seat.
It carries a
special resonance in
"The eye of
the storm," as Lowell Mayor
In a visit that
coincided with the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! festival,
the writers and editors arrived Thursday night. They leave today for their
homes in
"
"The people
here today will help promote the city and the scroll when they go home,"
Belanger says. The words of the nine journalists will reach millions.
Kerouac is the
hook, says Olga Mazzoni, who has been arranging such
visits for the past decade for Tourism
Paul Marion, the
"They see
him as the quintessential American character."
He compares the
sweeping myth of Kerouac's decidedly American work to Western movies.
"To the
Italians, it seems like he's the Clint Eastwood -- the maverick -- of the
second half of 20th century literature. I think they relate to the jazz, the
cosmopolitan-ness of The Beats. The Beats were of the
American Earth but they had a sophisticated worldliness and I think that
Europeans relate to that."
"It wasn't a
best-seller, but it was like one of the deeper album cuts, and they showed
interest."
Friday, over a
lunch of pizza, sausage, salad, pasta and Pelligrino
at Caffe Paradiso, the
Italian giornalistas spoke of their country's
fascination with the Lowell-born writer, born in the spring of 1922, dead at 47
in the leafless fall of 1969.
They all credit
the influential writer and intellectual Fernanda Pivano, who first translated the work of Kerouac and other
Beats for Italians.
They say Italians
relish Kerouac's submission to freedom, his fearlessness and willingness to
follow its siren call.
There are
socio-economic reasons for his Italian popularity, too.
Massimo Pacifico was last in
Pacifico, 55, says he's
considering "a completely new project" for 2007, which involves the
other eight journalists.
Pacifico founded a glossy magazine
called Verve five months ago. He sees "there has been a lot of investment
in
"When I
arrived, I discovered the city was not only important as Jack Kerouac's
birthplace, but even more as being the first industrial city in the new
continent ... It was a very unique combination of literature and the social,
the industrial and the city's architecture."
Kerouac is
"much loved" in Italy, and On The Road was one of the first American
novels Pivano translated, not long after the first,
Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
"Kerouac
represents the sense of freedom all the young men have. It is the myth of
travel without a target, without a goal. It has a big sense of liberation that
still attracts young people to this. Every young man wants to be this."
"It is the
myth, especially in On The Road," says
Milan-based Federica Brunini, who writes for L'Espresso.
"For all
generations of Italians, it is kind of a symbol of the
She picked up On The Road in high school and found it "not an easy book
to read. But there was a fascination. Even you don't want to travel it tells
you about a period. I was at the commemorative earlier. There is some text from
A Traveler written there, a kind of testament, for every person who wants to
travel, not only from one place to another, but a kind of mind travel. If you
want to know the world, I think you should read Kerouac."
Luigi Grella, the editor of Airone, a
monthly magazine of nature, culture and heritage, says Kerouac's appeal springs
from "his individualism. We are an anarchic people. We have a problem
respecting the rules. We look at rules with benevolence."
Kerouac seemed
"a revolutionary. He anticipated the times, writing what he did 50 years
ago."
Many Italians
"wanted to travel his freedom trail" in the 1970s and '80s, and I
think a new generation is starting to appreciate his message ... I want to see
if the freedom image of Kerouac translates also 50 years later.
It is Grella's first trip to
For all his
youthful bluster and recklessness, who would Kerouac
be today, wonders Grella, "if he were alive now?
"In
Jasmina Trifoni
is a freelance magazine writer, 40, from
"A very
freaky place, like you enjoy when you are young. So it was perfect for my
personal experience in
Kerouac continues
to appeal to young Italians.
"But we are
also very provincial in a way, and have a passion for our own authors more than
others."
Raffaelle Panizza,
32, write for Vogue, Max, Rolling Stone and Vanity
Fair. He discovered Kerouac at 16.
"The first
thing, ours is a small country," he says. "You don't have the chance
to travel for hours and days without reaching a destination. You can go from
coast to coast in three hours, and from Milano to
He says Italians
can only imagine the epic scope of the criss-cross
American journey Kerouac wrote in On The Road.
But even those
who don't read Kerouac call long trips "an On the Road" journey,
"so his invention is in our vocabulary."
Kerouac is not in
school curriculum ("we usually study Italian writers"), but his work
is a sort of rite of passage.
"He
discussed the freedom of sex, and finding your real focus inside of you. It was
25-30 years before Italians could do that."
Panizza's parents (born in 1939 and
1940) went to work at 10 in an
"The cities
were destroyed and my parents had to go to work." Post-war
Reading Kerouac
is "something you have to do to get close to American culture. Like
listening to Bob Dylan, Springsteen, and watching the Blues Brothers movie.
They are icons."
They are ideas
that "burn in your life," he says.
"In
"The idea of
Kerouac is burning your life, it is fascinating. Doing things you never tried.'
Pacifico read On The Road when he was 18. It was part of an inexpensive
pocket book series.
"Travel was
not that easy as it is now. That kind of freedom travel gives you ..."
He laughs.
"I don't
know if I became a famous travel writer because of him, but I could be."
For listings of
today's events, visit the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Website, lckorg.tripod.com.
David Perry's
e-mail address is dperry@lowellsun.com.
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