2019 Program
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.
Matteo Nucci is author of novels, short stories, reportages and essays. He published the novels Sono comuni le cose degli amici (Ponte alle Grazie, 2009) and È giusto obbedire alla notte (Ponte alle Grazie, 2017) both finalist at Premio Strega, together with the novel-essay Il toro non sbaglia mai (Ponte alle Grazie, 2011) and L’abisso di Eros (Ponte alle Grazie, 2018). He translated the translation of Plato’s Symposium (Einaudi, 2009) and the narrative essays Le lacrime degli eroi (Einaudi, 2013) and Achille e Odisseo. La ferocia e l’inganno (Einaudi, 2020). His short stories have been published in collections and magazines, and his reportages on Il Venerdì di Repubblica and L’Espresso and online on minima et moralia. He is editor of a taurine culture website: www.uominietori.it. In September his latest novel Sono difficili le cose belle will be published by HarperCollins.
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