PRIMO LEVI
29
never cease finding ever new meanings in his pages. It is likely that
the uninterrupted success of his books is due precisely to the fact that
they do not smuggle anything over on us, neither lessons in morality
nor didactic efforts .
3) To teach something to someone . To do this and do it well
can be valuable for the reader but only if the terms are clearly stated.
Except for rare exceptions, such as Virgil's
Georgics,
the didactic in–
tention corrodes the narrative canvas from underneath, degrades
and contaminates it: the reader who looks for a story must find a
story and not a lesson he does not want. But, of course, there are ex–
ceptions, and whoever has the blood of a poet knows how to fmd and
express poetry also when talking about stars, atoms, cattle-breeding,
and the raising of bees. I would not like to shock anyone by mention–
ing here
Science in the Kitchen and the Art ofEating Well
by Pelligrino
Ar–
tusi, another man of pure heart who speaks without riddles: he does
not pose as a literary man, passionately loves the art of the kitchen
despised by hypocrites and dyspeptics, sets out to teach it, says as
much, does so with the simplicity and clarity of someone who knows
his subject deeply, and spontaneously produces a work of art .
4) To improve the world. As can be seen, we are getting further
and further away from the art that is an end in itself. It is ap–
propriate to remark here that the motivations we are discussing have
very little importance as regards the value of the work which they
may originate; a book can be good, serious, durable, and pleasing
for reasons quite different from those for which it was written. Igno–
ble books can be written for the most noble reasons, and also, but
more infrequently, noble books for ignoble reasons. However, I per–
sonally have a certain distrust for whoever "knows" how to improve
the world; often but not always he is someone so enamored of his
system as to become impervious to criticism.
It
is to be hoped that he
does not possess too strong a will, otherwise he will be tempted to
change the world with deeds and not merely words : this is what
Hitler did after writing
Mein Kampf,
and I have often thought that
many other Utopians, if they had had sufficient energy, would have
unleashed wars and slaughters.
5) To make one's ideas known . He who writes for this reason
represents only a reduced and therefore less dangerous version of the
preceding case. In fact this category coincides with that of philos–
ophers, be they geniuses, mediocre, presumptuous, lovers of man–
kind, dilettantes or madmen.
