96
PARTISAN R' EVIEW
the date when the great political tide that had submerged Italy after
1943 began to ebb.
Alvaro's case indicates quite clearly in what sense Italian intellectual
life, without ceasing to be intense and productive, has become listless.
It
has again withdrawn into itself, as so often in the past, and has
abandoned the hope of being socially fertile. In addition, there is the
very noticeable commercialization of Italian life: the invasion of mass
culture (or disintegration of culture) with the movies, the illustrated
weeklies, the comics, the innumerable and frantic forms taken by
advertising (which, as in the case of the many literary and artistic prizes
offered by commercial and industrial firms, often influences cultural
life in a quite direct manner). There is practically not a single writer,
including such famous and well-remunerated ones as Moravia, who
does not work for the movies or the illustrated weeklies. The custom
now prevails of known writers and artists participating, as members
of the jury, in beauty contests organized for commercial and touristic
advertising. All these are ways of making some additional money or,
at least, of having one's name recalled to the public.
Discussing this phenomenon, Elsa Morante (the author of a bril–
liant novel,
Menzogna e Sortilegio,
just published in America under
the title
House of Liars),
remarked: "I must say I understand writers
who make movies, work in advertising and even participate in beauty
contests. The financial question aside, those are ways of participating
in
what goes on in the world. Today, when a writer has finished a book,
all the satisfaction he can get from his work is already behind him. The
public, even the reading public, is not really interested in the written
word, but only in its net results : whether or not your picture appears in
the papers often enough. The book has become an object, thrown away
and forgotten as soon as it has been used. No social atmosphere forms
around literature any longer. No wonder that writers try to reach
society though other mediums. Making a movie is, after all, a way
of acting."
Nicola Chiaromonte
