THE BOOKThe rigorous self-awareness (such a rare quality!) with which Bobbio viewed the worldForty years of correspondence between Norberto Bobbio and Leo Valiani, now published by Biblion. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) postponing its shift towards the West, the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) reduced to a tactical ‘third-force’ stance, and a left that regards every reform as a breach of a ‘taboo’byMatteo Marchesini24 OCT 26
THE ANALYSISDemocracy today, caught between institutional leviathans and technological monopoliesOn Simona Forti’s lecture on the contemporary far right. Fiction to be avoided and momentous decisions taken in esoteric settingsbyMatteo Marchesini2 OCT 26
FREEDOM AND RELATIVISMTo oppose wokism is to oppose the fear of mistakes and ‘bad ideas’.Generally speaking, its champions are individuals who are intimidated by the prospect of placing themselves in others’ historical and cultural shoes, or of engaging with a radically different world view seriously. The lessons of Simone Weil and Montaigne on freedom and relativism byMatteo Marchesini12 SEP 26
A STACK OF BOOKSThe Return of Diderot“Two Intrigues, a Satire and a Divertissement” brings together four texts by Diderot, translated by Dario Borso. Pranks, revenge, gallantry and medicine provide the backdrop against which the Enlightenment thinker gives free rein to his most unconventional and unpredictable ideasbyMatteo Marchesini12 SEP 26
Something to readFlaubert’s ParrotA review of Julian Barnes’s book, published by Einaudi, 230 pp., 12 eurosbyMatteo Marchesini12 AUG 26
the reprintLytton Strachey and his collection of ‘miniature portraits’In his book, which has just been published in a new translation, the Bloomsbury Group writer displays his characteristic humour whilst at the same time raising questions of great depthbyMatteo Marchesini8 AUG 26
reading on the beachPerformative reading, from southern Italy to post-apocalyptic futuresCast adrift amongst the clichés, stereotypes and mannerisms of recent Italian fictionbyMatteo Marchesini18 JUL 26
