decoder – pop culture encyclopaediaDetective cats, Irish folklore and legendary beastsThree weekly recommendations to explore comics, film and TV, and games, helping you find your way through the vast universe of pop culture and the stories that are shaping the contemporary imagination. Today: the graphic novel "Blacksad", the film "Hokum" and the video game "Beast of Reincarnation"byGianluca De Angelis4 AUG 26
The interviewAppiah, the moralist with a passion for crime novelsPhilosophy, cultural criticism, but also novels by the writer of the New York Times column “The Ethicist”. A conversationbyAntonio Monda3 AUG 26
special reviewA magnificent but superficial Odyssey: the translator speaksThe scathing review of Christopher Nolan’s film, which in turn prompted Emily Wilson to reflect on the complexity, grandeur and enduring appeal of Homer’s epic and its protagonist. Yet the British director also has his merits, which should not be underestimatedbyEmily Wilson3 AUG 26
The underground librariesLost and rediscovered books paint a spectacular picture of NaplesFrom La Capria to Ortese, from Nicola Pugliese to Michele Prisco. Treasures on paper to grasp the essence of a city that is both the most generous in revealing itself and the most astute in concealing itself. An itinerarybyFrancesco Palmieri3 AUG 26
the weekend supplements“If we were ever to meet on Judgement Day”: Wittgenstein beyond geniusBefore he became the philosopher of the "Tractatus", his friends thought of him as an angel. But he had quite a temper, as poor Engelmann discoveredbyAlessandra Iadicicco3 AUG 26
MagazineIn the heart of wild SardiniaWalking the 500-kilometre-long Way of Saint Barbara, past caves, sheer drops and Italy’s oldest geological formationsbyGery Palazzotto3 AUG 26
ODD NUMBERSDaniel Mauceri: “The Art of Puppetry from the 19th Century to the Newer Generations”His mind and hands are devoted to an art form that has been in his family since 1877, when the first puppeteers of the Puzzo family established it in Syracuse: “These days, being a puppeteer also means being an entrepreneur. Passion alone isn’t enough; it takes nothing less than devotion.” InterviewbyFrancesco Palmieri2 AUG 26
The Nuremberg Trials /1There is a judge in NurembergWith the war over, amidst the ruins of defeated Germany, the victorious powers put the crimes of Nazism on trial before an international military tribunal. A story that begins with a portrait of the key figures in the courtroombyCarlo Nordio1 AUG 26
the weekend supplementsSome Like It Cold. The Life, Death and Miracles of IceCold as a luxury, a craft, an archive and a desire. A material that is anything but ‘dead’, with a history of commercial triumphs, domestic revolutions and contemporary obsessions. The journeys of an impossible commoditybyEnrico Cicchetti1 AUG 26
MagazineLolita never diedFree from Nabokov’s pen and Humbert’s mind, it has a voice all of its own. Pia Pera was the first to realise thisbyAnnamaria Guadagni1 AUG 26
