AND tragicomic Nicola’s adventure, by profession none and all: pathological liar, he invents valuable identities to win girls’ hearts. The lies swell up to overwhelm him. But before the bang he will be able to live three imaginary lives: as a writer, conductor and doctor complete with a novel to be published (he who has never written anything), in concert at the Opera (he who does not know music ) and patient care (he who is not even a graduate).
Ermanno Cavazzoni lives in Bologna, where he taught at the University. Author of novels and short stories, from his Poema dei lunatici Federico Fellini drew the subject of La voce della luna. Photo: AGF EDITORIAL
A paradoxical story, of course, but like a mirror that magnifies but does not deformbecause, says the author, deep down we all lie: «Everyone represents himself in a different way, let’s think of how even memories are often manipulated to give a more “suitable” image of himself» he says Ermanno Cavazzoni, former professor of aesthetics at the University of Bologna and author of many novels: with The galaxy of the dementedwas a finalist at Campiello 2018 and at his best known, The poem of the lunatics, Federico Fellini was inspired by the subject of the film The voice of the moon. With a surreal and dystopian vein Cavazzoni investigates individuals, telling us how each one, off the rails that standardize him, proceeds in ways incomprehensible to others.
Let’s start with Nicola: who is he?
It combines many experiences, personal or news stories. The latest, the case of Samuel Artale, who for a long time passed himself off as a survivor of Auschwitz: for 15 years he toured schools telling “his” story, in some respects for a good purpose, but a colossal imposture, grown to the point where there is no going back.
The big liar by Ermanno Cavazzoni, The Ship of Theseus208 pages, €19
Nicola, you write, is not bad, his is a weakness…
Yes, a weakness that dominates him: the lie he tells to Mirta, that of being the writer whose book the girl is reading on the bus, has an end: he wants to know her in order to be loved, to fill the loneliness of a life never built. But the lie grows bigger and like an avalanche accumulates further pretenses. He’ll end up getting a publisher to publish a book that he never wrote. And then he will pretend to be conductor and also a doctor, complete with patients.
Through his macroscopic lies does he only want to live a less anguished present?
He wants to live an understanding. He packs lies to the two girls Mirta and Ester to say what they want to hear. He wants to enter into a relationship, and so with the other characters he meets.
They too tell little lies…
Everyone lies, and everyone lies differently.
There’s a big liar in each?
One cannot help but think of certain social profiles.
Well… There are cover-up lies, perhaps to hide a lover. And those that redefine an identity, with which one recreates one’s self, as if to become another person, certainly a better one. It is a mixture of fragments of truth and great fantasies. Many invent a glorious past, or great events. Certain cover pages, for example, are full of prizes and honorable mentions, curricula are given an ad hoc “tweak”: we all want to look brighter
Is it more serious to lie to others or to yourself?
Better to use the word worrying. Recreating oneself, building a world knowing that it is not true means having an uncertain self, lying becomes harmful. Lying to others can be a defense.
You collaborated on the screenplay of The voice of the moon by Fellini: is there also poetry in lies?
Let’s say that in literature the liar is more interesting than the sincere, there is more imagination. Fellini considered himself a great liar. And he always told me that it’s better to tell far-fetched lies. For example, if they asked him to participate in an award or invited him to the university to give him an honorary degree (he always refused them), he said that one shouldn’t answer with a little lie but say “I have to leave for Alaska”. completely displace the interlocutor. And on the other hand Fellini in many films has built Mastroianni as a great liar. The whole Italian comedy, then, is based on liars.
Going back to Nicola, when he goes to eat at the soup kitchen, complete with a fake beard, he is convinced not to give it to the bums: yes, to the bourgeois outside, but inside the soup kitchen, no. Does he explain why?
I happened to do some work around the theme of the homeless, even among them there are characters who constitute a kind of aristocracy, who almost look down on others at a lower level. In every sector of human life there is always an idea of belonging to a group of the best. It seems paradoxical, but everywhere there is a desire for hierarchy.
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