As ethical and aesthetic principles no longer exist, looking like an idiot as a a consequence. (p. 184)
So says the surgeon Bocchi in this new novel by Niccolò Ammaniti. He says it's to reassure the writer Fabrizio Ciba, who is concerned that his audience a poem he will recognize plagiarism by Kahlil Gibran. And that cessation of ethics and aesthetics that plagues of the modern world and Italy in particular, is the theme of this bizarre farce.
Let the games begin utterly unlike the famous that i'm Not Scared, that won the Viareggio Literary Award, was made into a film in countless languages and gripping. This new novel is absurdist, crude and mocking, and-be warned-it has some Repellent scenes that made me hesitate before plunging on.
Think Federico Fellini, Carnevale, Bacchanalia. The cover art on the Australian Edition refers to two-faced Janus, the rape of the Sabine women, Artemis the Hunter, Bacchus and an assortment of devilish satyrs and whatnot. In satirising the State of Italian politics, has drawn on all types of Mythology Ammaniti make this extraordinary book, intentionally designed to shock, disgust and dismay.
While reading this book, I was visiting my parents that Avid cryptic crossword fanatics, so I had access to not one, but two encyclopedias of Mythology, and an old dictionary of Demonology. Browse through them revealed that Ammaniti Aeneas, which was named after the duty in place of love, and Atreas dispute over joining a throne. In let the games begin is a pathetic Satanist who unfortunately little his duty as leader of his sect ahead of love, and the throne in dispute is literary kingship.
The novel begins with Saverio, a man whose life bad is synchronous. He has big dreams to achieve familiarity with the Satanic rituals to rival Charles Manson, but in reality a pedestrian lives life as a failed furniture salesman with a dominant woman whose father owns the furniture store. His cult, the wild beasts of Abbadon, has members to the rival children of the Apocalypse bleeding, and he is under pressure from his remaining pals, Zombie, a human sacrifice, murder and Silvietta, an initiation ritual with virgins, or at least organize an orgy.
The catalyst for change in Saverio of life is when the rival Satanist who are members has its poaching him membership offers, and he says no. This gives him the courage to say no in other contexts, (leading to a very ugly scene at home), and he almost has a moment of common sense and abandons the cult. But he doesn't, because he thinks his duty lies with the cult, and the only way to keep the respect of his members to do something really violent. (This scenario comes to some readers uncomfortable, the idea that an act of extreme violence, with no prospect of repentance (out of the question as he is a Satanist), an assertion of self-respect is. It all depends on how seriously you license it, and how much you are willing to grant the author).
Fortunately for Saverio comes Salvatore Caldwell, the richest man in Rome, to the rescue. Under privatization, he has bought the Villa Ada and transformed it into a grotesque fun park. To celebrate his great achievements, he is holding a party, and every celebrity and corrupt politician has invited to join the fun. There will be three different hunts: an Indian Tiger-Hunt, a fox hunt and a lion hunt, and guests get to dress up and pretend to be of Ernest Hemingway. With real guns. Is the singer of hit list that Larita Saverio burns because they gave up heavy metals for sweet love songs and converted to Catholicism among the guests. All the cult has to do is in the park and they can then be killed with the sword Durendal which Saverio has bought on eBay.
At the same time, the celebrity author, Fabrizio Ciba, a bit of an identity crisis. He is the last time, more known for its famous than he is for writing books, and he haasmi after a Nobel Prize, handicapped by the fact that he's shallow and amoral, and by the look of his essay on poetry, banal. He is jealous of a young writer who has won the three major Italian literary prizes in a year, and he would like to see the back of the Nobel laureate whose praise he has to sing. All three get invited to the party as well, of course, and eventually crossing paths with the cult.
All this ends in chaos, like you, with some spectacular annoying victims and an unexpected redemption or two would expect. Some of it is rather chastens, some of it is disgusting and some of it made me laugh out loud. Let the games begin is a bit of a roller coaster ride, which not everyone will enjoy.
Unfortunately, this edition is marred by too many typos and the translation is not very smooth. There are many strange metaphors such as "drink such as a Frisian at a fountain ' (p. 146), and ' exploding like a football ' (p. 223). There are idiomatic errors like ' the day to day ' (' day to day ', p. 146) and ' between one and other ', usually rendered ' what with one thing and another. ' Then there are careless mistakes such as "talk to the ' copy-editing (bearing, p. 195); and ' thanks ' (dan, p. 47); ' psycopath ' (p. 185); and unphased ' (unfazed, p. 244); ' snake ' instead of ' nose ' on p. 280 and "Treaties" instead of discourses (p. 354). ' Incoronation "(p. 266) seems to be a hybrid of Coronation and inauguration, but I count on an online dictionary, while I am away from home, so I could be wrong. ' Molasser ' (p. 268) and ' an onanistic topos ' (p. 204), well, perhaps these failures of my vocabulary, but I had no idea what they meant. I suspect molasser, apparently a kind of dog, should have become as mastiff; but Wikipedia fails me with an onanistic topos.
Author: Niccolò Ammaniti
Title: let the games begin
Publisher: text Publishing, 2013
ISBN: 9781921758461
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