Speed Book Date[1] – Varese March 11st, 2018

I’ve presented : ‘La profezia dell'armadillo’[2]

I’ve a parallel passion for authors comics : this summer Marco and Laura – Marco is my third-born twenty-five years old, engaged – gave me this beautiful comic which they really liked, at the end of a few days of vacation together. I read it after they left and laughed so hard, laughing is good for me.

I heard Zerocalcare say – it was at the 2016 ‘Book Fair‘ in Milan. Oh, by the way, Zerocalcare’s real name is Michele Rech, thirty-five years old - that “he never went to the psychologist“. It will therefore be entirely thanks to him if he is capable of communicating with his unconscious – the armadillo, “my imaginary friend that makes easier for me to understand my thinking and ruminations“ – and that we normally remove and find ourselves dealing with daily neuroses ?

Well, in this comic it seems like Zerocalcare lives well with his unconscious. Infact, his Artist 2nd Edition begins with an published comic, in black and white, in which Zerocalcare talks to himself from nine years earlier, when the first edition was published : he sold something like 100.000 copies, but he is still dealing with his nightmare of “being left behind“ and “Is my mother happy ?“ But now, with dignity, this is his job, and his mother – who in the comic has the features of Lady Cocca in ‘Robin Hood‘ by Walt Disney -  is happy too.  

He just suddenly learned that “Camille didn’t make it“, as the father of the friend he talks about in the first edition writes to him, and he wonders : “Is the one I remember the real Camille or the one from the comic ? Am I still capable of measuring that gap ? Was it right, was it wrong ?“ and then to himself : “Think about these things, don’t treat them like mental blowjobs. Because you’ll carry them with you for a long time.“

He was born at Arezzo and now he lives in Rome, in the Rebibbia Prison district.

“It is called the armadillo’s prophecy any optimistic forecast based on subjective and irrational elements, passed off as logical and objective, destined to increase disappointment, frustration and regrets, forever and ever. Amen.“

Marina Bilotta Membretti - Varese March 11st, 2018

TutorSalus.net - Freudian journalism

[1] Speed Book Date, presentation of a book within five minutes : event in five presentations in different Italian cities, conceived and managed by Alessandra Pagani, editor and blogger.

[2] ‘La profezia dell'armadillo’ Artist 2nd Edition 2017, by Zerocalcare – BAO Publishing