Few people help us remember, not with the memory of reason, information or the cold and precise data, but with an emotional memory, with the effect that feelings have in that peculiar way that makes us not forget things. Antonio Tabucchi walked through life with the language of the novelist and journalist, the language of the overwhelming reality, the language of commitment, of being conscious, with a clear mind that understood things in their proper perspective. He would not give in, he would not compromise in vain, he would not fall for deceit. He would also go through life with the feeling of the novelist, that who may tell a story that turns out into reality.
It is my belief that Tabucchi’s importance in not pin-pointed in any particular book, but in his global view of life based on language, and through language itself, his construction of a discourse, ans an understanding that it is through discourse that ideas and ideologies, culture and politics are legitimated. His mind constructs shows us the way to analyze the discourse of the groups of power and the way they appropriate themselves of the discourse of the weakest, that is, the process of alienation of the peoples culture and with it, of the history as a whole.
And history is the other important action field of Tabucchi, because he presents us the history of the present day, that witch is now and at the same time old. We may see this through his clear sense of differentiation between the news that tells something new and meaningful and that witch tells us something we already know, that witch is rhetorical, like the common news on the mass media communication channels or the pamphleteer or demagogic political speech. The control of the political discourse has no other purpose than to change the meaning of history.
“In order to falsify history you need to falsify words as well. Or at least, pervert them.”
However, Tabucchi’s view of history is a long sequence of linguistic discourses that go on a roundabout of territories, maybe not necessarily round, but elliptical. Because they come back in time, or better yet, they follow their same discorsive steps to repeat themselves or redefine themselves. That is why his constant criticism to the government of Berlusconi and even to the left wing in Italy are recurring in themselves, and at the same time, are general and universal. So we can see in them a clear photograph of the situation in Mexico (for example). The story of a right wing government who’s relation with the mass communication media, specially that of the television, and the way information, language and the discourse are manipulated in a clear sign of power is in fact, a central theme in Tabucchi’s analysis of Berusconi’s government. I believe that this story applies to many other countries, and I am sure that people in Mexico find it similar to our reality. The same may happen in other latitudes.
Silvio Berlusconi has been President of the Cabinet Council in Italy more than once. He is the owner of a first league soccer team in Italy, the AC Milan and of the television network Canale 5. In 1977 he acknowledged himself with the designated title "Il Cavaliere" (The Gentleman) a nobel title in Italy. His mix management of politics and public opinion, both in his control, addressed him strong criticism and scandals. He resigned to political office in 2011 after a strong economical crisis in Italy that is still present today.
A good example of what we have said about Tabucchi’s orientation can be seen in his book L’oca al Passo (2006). The book is a collection of newspaper chronicles that where published before in Madrid, Caracas, Mexico, Lisboa and Los Angeles. Tabucchi rewrote some of them and organized them in a new order, or may we say, disordered them into a new nonsense structure that gave them a different meaning. The new structure is not based on a time line of publication of the articles but on The Game of the Goose, very popular in latin countries and, for some, a game with esoteric foundation. This way, Tabucchi gives the reader a new reading structure based on significative life experiences witch is not necessarily chronological and cause-effect oriented. Like in Cortazar’s Hopscotch (1963), the story may change it’s sequence and development, but the essence of the experience remains, endures, transcends. It is something to be relived, it is a re-visit of experiences one recognizes once and again. So, the book offers two different reading sequences. One may choose the A path, like being player A in the Goose Game, and follow a straight forward reading. Or chose the B path that jumps forward and backwards alongs the chapters. The paths may seem different but the final square is the same, the unveiling of reality itself, openly and with the skill of a great journalist that makes me remember Ryszard Kapuściński, who also put his life in the line of the honest journalist discourse.
La Oca Al Paso de Antonio Tabucchi (Anagrama, 2006), spanish version.
L'Oca al Passo, italian version. I did not find an english translation. Amazon has Satire and social commitment in Tabucchi's L'oca al passo.: An article from: The Modern Language Review, witch is in a digital download format.
http://www.amazon.com/Satire-social-commitment-Tabucchis-passo/dp/B002VCWCUQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332904279&sr=1-3
In the past decades the world has lost some important minds and writers, critics and analysts of todays society and totalitarian systems, of many shamelessness of humanity and of the unreason inside many countries. Deep down they represent an ideological fight, maybe not in the exact meaning of the word as a confrontation between to positions that see reality in a different way, but between a position that is willing to manipulate reality as it pleases and another one that is searching for the truth in itself, that is looking for ways to make things known by most people so we may make our own opinion, our own ideas, with no one telling us the way, but, as we find our own way we learn through life, through the real experience.
The Game of the Goose is avery old game who's origins are not clear. Some trace them back to the Greeks, although more identifiable versions date back to the 16th Century. It has a spiral format and players advance through the squares to find different surprises that make them jump forward or backward a few squares. The surprises it holds and the ups and downs can be felt in close relation to life itself. It has been said that the game has an esoteric foundation and even hidden messages, but none of this has been proven.
Kapuściński and Baudrillard died in 2007, Saramago in 2010 and Tabucchi in 2012. The four of them wrote around todays society, they analyzed the capitalist system, democracy and it’s manifestations, language, culture and the human experience. Each one wrote from their own point of view, their own space, from the experience of their trips and visits, their travels as correspondants or lecturers and with a keen eye to show the world, the first and the third, to show us opulence and poverty, reality and fiction. The life of a world at peace, although always in war, always unequal. Tabucchi said about the war…
“We must be suspicious of a democracy that goes to war without thinking. The marching band sounds, soldiers part to the front, mothers, wives and brides waving handkerchiefs: how idyllic is this departure seen from the commemorative postcards. It seems like they where going to a party: Are they really going to do good? And, what will they find in the place that they arrive, jubilant children and flowery meadows? The representation of the departure to the front changes if you manage to escape from the stereotype and think on what war really is. That is when the picnic may turn into a nightmare.”
He was referring to Italy’s involvement in the Middle East war, but it’s easy to imagine other scenarios in other parts of the world, even in Mexico, where the government now declares that we are not actually in war against drug traffic and that the lost lives (more than in the war against Irak) are only “collateral damages” for the benefit of the majority and the institutions, as abstract and impersonal as that sounds…
In this case, the most terrifying terror is not war itself, whoever it is against to, but the discourse and the culture, the manipulation and deception, the falsehood and concealment in witch media fall for. As a reporter and communicator, Tabucchi set an example of integrity and honesty, because in science and journalism if you find an end or the goal you are left in silence, you have nothing else to say or do, or you fall into repetition and rhetoric. They are both, in essence, activities with no end. As in Confucius’s oriental thought, the path is the truth and to keep on searching is the reazon of being. So was Tabucchi’s work of constant search, and in assuming it that way he was, in his position, questioning the mass media like television that so often holds a defined and goal-met position. He would also question reporters and chroniclers who’s spirit is not profession-oriented but instead are looking for the glamour and fame.
I would like to finish this reflexion on Tabucchi with two of his thoughts… The first is for those who fall for the immediate information, that witch has lost content and experience…
“Italy is a country with no future: our world is that of the eternal present, of the television talk-show. There are countries that see their own future as a poll, or even worst, polls that see their future as a country. It is a mad mayonaise that goes around in the mixer over it’s own egg yolk, buy never thickens.”
Can he be talking about Mexico or some other occidental country, or am I just imagining things?
The second one is related to the idea of forgiveness, a concept very much in fashion now days with the Pope visiting many countries in Latin America, but in this case, Tabucchi compares it with the true concept of democracy.
“In a catholic country like ours, it is common practice to confuse democracy with the evangelic principle of punting the other cheek. But democracy is not about having tolerance for the freedom of others, it’s respect for the freedom of others, it is the full right to guarantee and mark the freedom of each one. Being democrat does not mean you have to tolerate the abuse of others or to accept that someone, in the name of democracy, devours the democracy on witch he wishes to act upon. Because if he does, he deprives us from democracy.”
I do hope the words I have chosen from Tabucchi make the reader reflect, become angry or give you a sense of commitment for this world. My idea has been to create an emotional reaction different from the cold obituaries of the common press. And if you have never read Tabucchi, I hope this text invites you to do so, only then will Tabucchi’s spirit will remain alive, not as the memory of a great writer and journalist, but because of the passion and enthusiasm he put on his work as he defended the unruly spirit of the people of all sorts, colors, cultures and countries, and because he always questioned the discourse of immorality, without considering names or tags. May the spirit planted by him live in us all, Antonio Tabucchi.
Antonio Tabucchi (Pisa, Italy, September 24, 1943 – March 25, 2012 - Lisboa, Portugal)
Proyecto Noesis Int 