the first European festival on creativity

2019 Programme

Event #36

Matteo Nucci

Achilles, Odysseus and the truth of the future

According to the ancients, Achilles and Odysseus were two opposite figures. The former was straightforward, spontaneous, direct. The latter was deceptive, prudent, and with tortuous thoughts. Two forms of intelligence, therefore, mainly linked to a different way of living. Achilles is constantly thrown into the present. Odysseus, on the other hand, never stops planning for the future. And yet great souls are full of contradictions. In his eagerness to look beyond, Odysseus' future often appears as a chimera. While Achilles seems to tell us that only by living the present is it possible to build a future. But what to do when the future is broken by an untimely end? At the moment when Achilles, in Hades, will meet Odysseus still alive, we will discover a great truth. A truth which, however, Odysseus did not have the courage to grasp.

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Matteo Nucci was born in Rome in 1970. He has published several novels with Ponte alle Grazie, including "Sono comuni le cose degli amici" (2009, finalist for the Premio Strega), "Il toro non sbaglia mai" (2011), "È giusto obbedire alla notte" (2017, finalist for the Premio Strega), and the narrative essay "L’abisso di Eros" (2018). For Einaudi, he released a new edition of Plato's "Symposium" (2009) and the narrative essays "Le lacrime degli eroi" (2013), "Achille e Odisseo. La ferocia e l’inganno" (2020), and "Il grido di Pan" (2023). With HarperCollins, he published the novel "Sono difficili le cose belle" (2022) and "Sognava i leoni. L’eroismo fragile di Ernest Hemingway" (2024). His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and eBooks. He also collaborates with the magazines La Stampa and L’Espresso.

2019 Programme

Event #36

Matteo Nucci

Achilles, Odysseus and the truth of the future

Space Exploration: today, tomorrow, and… the day after

And they called it sapiens

The future is history

Sketches

A time that is not near

Popular revolts in Medieval Europe. The Jacquerie of French peasants (1358)

Fragments of extinctions

Our future with A.I.

Will finance save the world?

Jokes on future

Taking care of oneself, of others, of the world

How is Earth’s climate changing?

The art of reading between past and future

The end of «the end of history»

Scott: future’s first explorer

Yesterday’s and tomorrow's diets. How to survive fake news?

Open Source Architecture

The inflamed mind

Will it still be possible to love you?

The race and the language: the future that does (not) expect us

Ernst Henry Shackleton. The hero who defeated the Arctic

The future of the theatre

Piano vs Groove

Popular revolts in Medieval Europe. The rebellion of the Ciompi (1378)

The destiny of a community and many religions: is there a dialogue for the future of humanity?

The Evil’s genes

The future of the word

Looking for immortality

Refugees’ future

What is the perspective of the future of Italy and of the world?

The real truth about plastic and bioplastic (maybe)

Robots of the future and plants

The chimera of peace

Re-writing the future of our children

City art versus outskirts art

Achilles, Odysseus and the truth of the future

Popular revolts in Medieval Europe.
The Jacquerie of French peasants (1358)