Serena Dandini (photo by Gianmarco Chieregato).
TO sometimes words fail. And now that Michela Murgia has left us, we miss them even more. Beyond the personal pain that everyone has to deal with alone, Michela’s disappearance has left an unbridgeable chasm in political and social terms.
Michela had the words. That is, she knew how to name things. Every morning I open the newspaper and… faced with heartbreaking, absurd, ambiguous news I ask myself: “What would Michela have said?”. Of the Palermo pack rape? About Caivano and the government trip? About the kicked sheep?…
The list of brutal, inhuman or just ridiculous facts is so thick that it makes us dizzy in search of meaning, of a non-propaganda interpretation for use on talk shows. She had the vision, the super-power to succeed with frankness, clarity and honesty to frame the spirit of the timeto read for us the intricate design of the present and translate it into thought and action.
Without the tiller of this moral rudder we are at the mercy of the waves, certainly more alone and disoriented in the face of a contemporaneity that it often leaves us astonished and incapable of forming an opinion that is not polluted by the chatter of social media and professional commentators.
Fortunately the rich bibliography that Murgia left comes to our aid and each of his publications is a small beacon to illuminate the path; like Hansel and Gretel, little by little, thanks to his books we manage not to get lost in the woods. From the resurgences of fascism to patriarchal culture, from the relationship with spirituality to new family forms, the writer’s work embraces all current events and the most burning issues.
You will not be alone in retracing his words because reading and discussion groups of his works have been formed throughout Italy (and beyond).: real social clubs that come together on Telegram in the Purple square channel which at the time of writing already has ten thousand members united by esteem for the author and animated by the intent to carry forward her intellectual mission.
Michela Murgia (Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)
A virtual square where it is possible to exchange opinions, suggestions, recommend readings, films and above all continue to dissect the propaganda of power. It is a way not only to honor his legacy but also to keep the cultural debate and resistance in this country alive and vibrant. And as Chiara Valerio prophesied in the magnificent and moving eulogy for her deceased friend: «Michela Murgia will be right tomorrow too».
All articles by Serena Dandini
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