Maddening Texts

Either my teacher has an esoteric taste (loves rocks, islands, mountains and the wilderness), or some Italian writers are just a pain in the rear, (especially when you have to analyse their texts) or they have a strange literary style.

So far I’ve managed to survive the dreary text on mountaineering. On Friday she gave us another text, to be read and analysed in separate sections.

It began as a rather sentimental and flowery description of a cluster of seven islands North of Sicily. The tense used was remote past. Teacher asked, ‘’what kind of book or writing is this taken from – memoir, romance novel, book on gourmet food, tourist guide, newspaper report?’’ Some blond air head in my class, after changing her mind 4 times, actually insisted it was a newspaper report. Not surprising, given that she is a fashion stylist and wanted to study Italian for its fashion.

Then we were told to read more of the text, which gushed on and on, in sappy language, about the location and description of each island, about how her parents sold the house on which the island she had lived, and how her brother moved to another very difficult to live island. Now, we were asked again, do you still think it’s a memoir, a romance novel, or a newspaper report or a tourist guide? Next, we had to guess the outcome/ next section of the text, after the ‘’cliff-hanger’’ last sentence. Worse, we had to start naming the seven islands she described, based on her rambling narrative, on the map.

Most of us still stuck to our guns that it’s either a memoir or a romance novel of some sort, given the tenses used, her suggestive metaphors (‘’extra marital affairs, flirt’’) and nostalgic, maudlin words.

When we finally struggled through the description of the harsh condition of the island that her brother has moved to, the typography, the climatic and geographical conditions, the savage wilderness of the far-flung island, I began to wonder if it was a Geography book gone wrong, or if the author was a Geography writer secretly aspiring to be Charles Dickens.

But wait. There is a surprise. Last section of the passage started with the description of how she managed to clamber up the steep steps in the barren island of Alicudi, nearly collapsing, to see her brother. And it ended with an eulogy of the glorious spaghetti that her brother had prepared for her. It then paid tribute to the wonderful simplicity (‘’semplicissimo’’) and beauty of fresh, simple ingredients like basil, tomatoes and capers in the spaghetti. The whole experience was a gastronomic epiphany (‘’epifanie gastronomiche’’), like a miracle (‘’qualcosa miracoloso’’).

And now, as part of my weekend homework, I have to do two things. First, select the most appropriate sketch of the layout of the secluded and inaccessible island (3 choices were given) based on her rambling description. Second, decide, if this is still memoir, romance novel, book on gourmet food, tourist guide, newspaper report?

I guess we’ll have an interesting philosophical debate tomorrow during class.