Writing Italy

1
Writing ItalyPart 2More Travelers Tales from
Sturla, Thorpe, Alford, Ellis, Parks, Green
2
Comparing Authors

• Credibilitywhat makes us trust them or prevents
  us from doing so?
• How do we feel about them?
• In what ways do we sympathize with them?
• Purposewhat, if anything, do they want to do
  besides entertain?
• What are the most vivid portraits that they paint?

3
Whats in a Name?Vince Sturla

• Ive just spent the last 24 hours traveling As
  I near my final destination, it is just beginning
  to occur to me that maybe this isnt such a great
  idea after all. (215)
• Common travel problem what am I getting myself
  into?
• Hint of mystery well, why would he go and why is
  he suddenly worried?

4
Why trace family?

• Curiosity? Understand yourself? History buff?
• Lots of Italian Americans do thismore than other
  groups?
• Italians ARE generally fond of American relatives
• Note that it doesnt matter how far removed you
  are!

5
Illusions

• Chasing a mythalways dangerous!
• Doesnt sound like the best part of Italy (Lets
  Go Dont wander the streets at night.)
• Via Sturla I cant stand it. I walk across the
  road to take a picture of the street sign. (217)
• Nows the chance to use all of that Italian I
  learned on the flight over and find out if this
  guy is a relative. (His Italian is so rough that
  every conversation is arduous.)

6
Whose Name Is It Anyway?

• Sturla Stirla vs. STOOR!lah
• (Note that people cant understand you if youre
  just a little off!)
• Hand gestures help him a little
• Has fun with his Italianness here compares the
  Dutch couple whose expression is the same
  regardless of the message) (217)
• Piazza Sturla a triangle where roads converge

7
Ironies

• Well, where are the Sturlas? Again the look.
• There are no Sturlas, signor.
• You mean there are no Sturlas in Sturla?
• Yes.Are you sure?
• Ive lived here for many years. Youre the first
  Sturla Ive met.
• Where did they go Did they all migrate to the
  United States? I cant believe this. (221)

8
Identity

• Returns to the hotel for a bad nights sleep
• Spends a couple of days walking around,
  assaulting locals with my rough Italian.
• This is his first trip to Italy, but now he
  declares himself Italian American.
• Rejects his other half-dozen nationalities
• All the Sturlas seem to have gone to Iceland
• Probably not an Italian name anyway!

9
Catherine ThorpeAdventures in Leather

• Title suggests.
• I once had an Italian suitor. He was very tall,
  dark, and handsome.. (223)
• And he offered me discounted leather goods.
• Any sexy image is already blown
• Educational tour, but the chaperones have all
  given up!
• Wanders in a trance

10
(No Transcript)
11
Expectations

• Shes read and seen A Room with a View a few
  times too many
• Naturally expecting a Romantic Adventure
• Gives up Pitti Palace to go shopping
• While thinking about how to impress her
  classmates. She gets slimed.
• Classmates admire her but keep on walking
• You should have a million boyfriends! 226

12
(No Transcript)
13
Backs Out

• Claims she doesnt have money, he bargains
• Offers to take her dancing, says she cant
• Offers to go with her friends too
• NoI just cant!
• Shes lost her friends, and all chances for a
  proper Romantic Adventure
• E.M. Forster hadnt prepared me for a waylaying
  Florentine merchant. (227)
• That night, no one finds her story noteworthy

14
After the Fact

• The formerly empathetic chaperone was pitiless.
  Thats what you get for going leather
  shopping. (227)
• The closest thing she has to an Adventure is
  embarrassing to remember
• Wonders what might have happened if.
• (When DO you take opportunities?)
• In retrospect my suitor became rather
  attractive

15
Henry AlfordVacationing with Mom

• Mom shocks him by inviting herself along
• Admits that he assumed getting away from it all
  included getting away from his mother
• Not sure how well his boyfriend will get along
  with her
• Surprised to find her such a great travel
  companion, folds maps, carries hankies,
  elicit(s) sympathy in the hearts of hotel clerks

16
Alfords Mom

• Surprises him by finding fault with Bernini
• Trying to get a good word in for him at the
  Vatican
• Mom on a Vespa

17
(No Transcript)
18
Trey Ellis The Visible Man

• Used to being a minority wherever he goes
• Guarda, mamma, un nero better than old ladies
  in CT crossing the sidewalk (300)
• Goes European dresses better and uses hand
  gestures!
• Assume hes an African refugee
• Yet Italians accepted me more readily than any
  people Ive ever known. They shared their Easter
  dinners, their beach houses, their grandparents.

19
Fun with Identity

• Back at school in the States, I didnt realize
  how uncomfortable I sometimes felt in the States
  until I remembered how at home Id felt in
  Italy. (302)
• On a short trip, you can fiddle with identity,
  but when he returns to Florence with no set date
  to return, I began to act less Italian.
• My savings stretched until Italian stereotypes
  about blacks landed me a job.
• Becomes a marketing gimmick in a ski store

20
(No Transcript)
21
Displaced

• Similarly, gets a job in a gymhes like a stamp
  of approval
• Knows he would never really fit in, so he cant
  really live in Italy.
• Problem I couldnt imagine myself in ten years,
  a stranger in every land. I needed to move on,
  but I wasnt ready to go home.
• But first travels to Africa where, for the first
  time, hes a majority.
• And THEN hes ready to return home.

22
Tim Parks Una bustarella

• Author has spent a lot of time in Verona
• Has written several books about Italy
• This is an excerpt from Italian Neighbors, 2002
• In this passage makes fun of a bureaucratic
  situation in a humorous way
• Also manages to make a complex situation
  understandable(and convinces us that our tax
  situation is not so bad after all!)

23
Tim Parks Una bustarella

• Cf Stone in My Greek Taverna, Elkjer
• His friend gets a university teaching job, but
  instead of security, gets a tax nightmare he
  cant understand (353)
• The tax laws are not only complicated but
  contradictory
• 4 years later, hes called in because his
  accountant forgot to complete a code
• The wrong code might have slipped by

24
More Problems

• Makes the mistake of asking the dusty old man
  to find a code, but he asks his colleague
• You have evaded VAT for around 9 million lire!
  (357)
• They ask him to bring in his university contract
• When?
• When you like, but dont forget.
• Hes left with disconcerting vagueness, wants the
  matter settled

25
Must be another way

• Government official says he must also pay a fine
  on top of the VAT he owes
• The friend explains about how colleagues are
  lobbying to be recognized as university
  employees, not freelancers
• The official is unmoved
• For the first time my friend lies, and this is
  another step forward. (360)
• He claims hes begun his own court case

26
Italian-Style

• Official says to come back with copies of his
  friends cases and his own
• Which, of course, he hasnt got. (361)
• Has his accountant go and talk to them they want
  a Christmas present.
• Prego?
• Una bustarella.
• Did they say so?
• God forbid!

27
Plot thickens

• So how does he know?
• He knows. (Otherwise the officials would have
  already filled out paperwork against him)
• The accountant had learned long ago the trick of
  dropping an envelope on the floor, or reading the
  signs if asked out for coffee
• Parks its like the exhilaration of making
  overtures to a lover without knowing whether the
  sentiments will be returned

28
Leniency

• The officials let him off the hook because he was
  merely a victim of circumstance.
• Theyre willing to take a bribe of 800,000 lire.
• Hes afraid of going down this dark road, so he
  consults his lawyer (the one helping all the
  colleagues in their fight for classification)
• She cant talk about it over the phone but has to
  check
• Helps him negotiate a lower amount

29
Last Line

• My friend walks out into the bright street with
  the feeling of one waking up from a nightmare. In
  the end hes only lost 250-odd quid. Not much to
  pay for a significant experience. (364)

30
Margaret Green The Nicholas Effect

• Family is touring southern Italy (parents,
  daughter 4, son 7)
• Young Nicholas enjoys the ruins at Paestum
• Dialogue to brighten the story Im Zeus!
• We planned to drive all night to the southern
  tip of Italy and take a ferry to Sicily. (387)
• When she wakes up, theres a car beside theirs
  and a man pointing a gun

31
Bad events

• Catch-22 theyre afraid to stop, and then gunmen
  shoot out two windows
• Finally the men stop chasing the Greens
• When they see police at another accident scene
  they stopfind Nicholas has been shot
• Theyre rushed to a hospital in Messina, lament
  the fact that theyre alone in Italy
• Nicholas is soon brain dead
• Decide to donate organs

32
Surprising support

• A crowd awaits by the time they return to the
  hotel, including a mom who wants to hug her
• Countless other kindnesses store owner gives
  clothes for the funeral, an old man stops and
  presses a stuffed animal in Eleanors arms
• Theyre flown home in an Italian Air Force jet

33
Continued support

• But thats not all. The story was carried in
  newspapers and on TV stations, and letters and
  telegrams pour in
• The whole country grieves. They get letters from
  school children, and streets and schools named
  after Nicholas
• Invited to a ceremony in their sons honor that
  they dont want to attend
• Meet all the organ recipients

34
Aftermath

• More importantly, doctors report a rise in organ
  donations and transplants
• Doctors said Nicholas had changed the entire
  country.. The willingness to donate went up
  400. (391)
• They called this The Nicholas Effect
• Father Reg is even dragged to a disco to hear a
  song about his son
• It was like a church. There was that much love.

35
(No Transcript)