MARK LILLA
65
important European intellectual reviews. This not only makes for good
reading: it also provides a more distanced and impartial vantage point
from which to consider Italy's political prospects and those of Europe as
a whole. As its title suggests,
MicroMega
is more loyal to Voltaire than to
Gramsci, and if forced to choose it prefers
fa ragione
to
fa sillistra .
The differences between
MicroMega
and
Cuore
are not simply those
between a serious intellectual review and a satire rag. They represent two
opposing attitudes toward the tradition of the left and two alternative
visions of Italy's intellectual and political future. The editors of
Mi–
croMega
seem to understand that Italy has already missed several ren–
dezvous with modernity, thanks to foreign invaders, the Church, Fascism,
and Communism. And they seem aware that the
partitocrazia
is not the
only barrier to modernization, but that it is aided and abetted by the
intellectuals' nostalgia for
fa sillistra.
Whether it persists in calling itself
"left" is immaterial; what matters is that
MicroMega
has finally brought a
modern voice to the baroque and parochial conversation of Italian in–
tellectuals.
CrlOre,
on the other hand, is funny - very funny indeed. But
one puts it down with the disquieting impression that its readers are
laughing themselves back to the Middle Ages.
