Chapter 3 Stranger in Turin

People who call Turin their second home—in the literary world—I don't think there are many.I know a lot of people who have adopted Milan as their second home - I can guarantee that almost all the literary people in Milan are!The number of people who take Rome as their second home is constantly increasing; the number of people who take Emerald as their second home is less than before, but there are still; Turin, on the contrary, should actually be born here, or in the end. Driven naturally by the trickle of the Po River, it pours into Turin from the valleys of Piedmont.For me, Turin is literally the result of choice.My birthplace, the province of Liguria, whose literary traditions are only fragments or ashes, so everyone can -- how lucky! ──revealing or creating a tradition of his own; my land is not some famous literary capital, so the Ligurian literati -- a few birds, to be honest -- have to be migratory birds.

What attracts me to Turin is a certain spirit not far from my countrymen and my preferences: not weaving unnecessary romantic feelings, devotion to one's work, naturally shy distrust, active participation in wandering the wide world Among them is a firm and ironic outlook on life that is not complacent, and a clear and rational wisdom.So what attracts me to Turin is its spiritual civilization, not its literature.This is the city that was recognized and inspired thirty years ago by another "acquired" Turin native, Antonio Gramsci, a native of Sardinia. Piero Gobetti, with a fascination that still inspires today.The revolutionary workers of the early post-war period were the Turin of the leading class, the Turin of the intransigence of the anti-fascist intellectuals.Is that Turin still there?Is it still heard in today's Italian reality?I believe its potential lies dormant like an embers under ashes, invisible but still burning.My literary Turin is inseparable from someone with whom I had the honor to be so close and who left me too soon: much is written about him today, but often the more I describe him the less clearly I see.His works alone are not enough to draw a complete outline of him, because what is important is his demeanor at work, seeing how a literati's cultivation and a poet's acumen transform into productive forces, valuable things for others to develop , so that the concept is organized and circulated, and transformed into practice and teaching that combines all technologies and modern cultural civilization.

I am talking about Cesare Pavese ([1]).For me, and for others who knew him and got to know him well, Turin taught us much the same as Paviser taught us.His shadow filled my life in Turin; he was the first reader of every page I wrote; it was he who brought me into the publishing industry that still keeps Turin as an international cultural center[2] ]; it is he who taught me in walks through the streets and hills to look at his city and taste its subtle beauty. It stands to reason to change the subject and talk about how a foreigner like me fits into this landscape, how I am doing well, how the fish on the rocky shore and the birds in the jungle migrate to this city of arches, breathing the fog and Bitter cold wind in the foothills of the Alps.But that would be a long story.One should also try to find out the mysterious playful motive that connects the geometry of these square roads with the geometry of the stucco walls in my hometown.Also, the special relationship between Turin's nature and civilization: like the new green of the leaves on the streets, the sparkling light on the Po River, and the friendly sight of the hills.Just re-open your heart to the unforgotten mountains and rivers, face to face with the vast natural world again, and re-give—in short—the taste of life.

~ LApprodo Quarterly, II, 1, Jan. 13, 1953. Annotation: [1]: Cesare Pavese (Cesare Pavese, 1908~1950), writer.Italy's cultural transition from the 1930s to the post-war new democratic culture stage is a representative figure of literati who devoted themselves to politics and society.Throughout his life he struggled with the analysis of himself and his relationships with others. Suicide in 1950.A hardcore member of Einaudi Publishing House. [2]: Einaudi Publishing House. Founded in 1933, the founder Giulio Einaudi (Giulio Einaudi, 1912-).The partners of the publishing house were all left-wing newcomers in the cultural circle at that time, such as Leone Ginzburg, Massimo Mila, and Cesare Paviser. In literature, philosophy and historical research.After the war, Einaudi Publishing House became the experimental center of various Italian cultures and played an extremely important role in the cultural circle at that time.