Is it something Italians are proud of and nostalgic about? See, with China and India, both of them are extremely proud of their ancient civilisations and reminisce about the 'glory days' and when they were the 'biggest and the best'. The Greeks are pretty darn proud about it (even forcing the Macedonians to agree that they've no heritage with regards to Alexander the Great) But do Italians have that same pride and nostalgia about the Roman Empire? Or is it something that doesn't feature particularly heavily and Italians don't bother too much about it? I don't know about India, but I want to say about China and chinese people that there's a huge discrepancy between the general (and very vague) sense of pride they cultivate towards their antiquity, and the actual testimonies of it, as it's very difficult to find evidences of their heritage anywhere in mainland China.
Simply put, conservation and maintenance of antiquity have almost no place in their mentality as compared to how, here, in the cradle of Western Civilization, people cherish the legacy of our past (be it texts, architecture or whatever.). If you go anywhere in China and ask for what would constitute 'antique' stuff, they'll probably point you to some buildings from the 1950s. Hong Kong or Taiwan, on the other hand, are much richer in sites ands monuments of their chinese past, as they haven't experienced the disruptive iconoclasm of the communist revolution.
Created Date: 12/3/2013 12:20:58 PM.
Of course it was my fault. I eagerly anticipated this. I had it on order for a long time. I finally received it. It felt good in the hands, as all Archipelago books do. I read a page or two, furtively, at work. My anticipation to dive right in heightened, but since really diving in to a book while sitting at my desk at work is impossible I stoked my anticipation by googling M.
Cartarescu, just to see what he looked like. Oh no not this fucking guy again. I remembered the face but not the name. Of course it was my fault. I eagerly anticipated this.
I had it on order for a long time. I finally received it. It felt good in the hands, as all Archipelago books do. I read a page or two, furtively, at work. My anticipation to dive right in heightened, but since really diving in to a book while sitting at my desk at work is impossible I stoked my anticipation by googling M. Cartarescu, just to see what he looked like.
Oh no not this fucking guy again. I remembered the face but not the name. How could I have spent so much time eagerly squirming in anticipation of reading this book when I had had such a disastrous experience with his Nostalgia not that long ago? Answer: it was so disastrous I hid the book away in a closet and expunged the experience from my memory, and I was so easily seduced by the promotional squibs promising proliferating gothic urban dreamscapes, hidden passageways, mind-bending descriptions, imagination galore, etc., by the very fact that the dude is Romanian (I even remember thinking when I first saw this book 'maybe this is the guy I wanted the dude who wrote Nostalgia to be'). What a bumbling bad memory erasing idiot I am! I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu.
I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. I do not like Mircea Cartarescu. Maybe now I'll remember. I am not saying that he is not a good writer. Windows installer 3.1 espacio almacenamiento insuficiente para procesar este comando.
In fact I think he is a very fine writer. What I object to is what consider his inauthentic imagination. His use of the imagination is like a parody of the imagination, as if he's trying so hard to be Mr. Bad Dreams, Mr. I Wish I Was Born Bruno Schulz But Since I Wasn't I Will Fill Up Page After Page With My Dark Labyrinthine Dreams So That Maybe Readers Will Be So Inundated By My Obviously Fertile Imagination That They Will Assume It Must Be Authentic.