Nicola D'Ugo
"He went to the battlements for a moment to consider the historical situation."
Raymond Queneau, blue flowers (1965)
There are several novels of the twentieth century telling stories of ordinary people and heroes. For a writer, some of these stories as others that are lost in the streams of the possibilities of our lives or our dreams. Sometimes we would like to repeat the exploits of that character all wrapped in mist and darkness, a sudden brightness, clarity Christmas, made garlands and Christmas balls on, makes it unbeatable for a certain warmth that we knew in a moment of our existence; sometimes, more dreamy, we would like to be that this hero who performs extraordinary exploits and gives a strong indication in human history and its possibilities. These two types of men and characters, literary criticism, which is authorized to describe the literature of men wanted them to call heroes and anti-heroes . In the twentieth century there are only the anti-heroes (ordinary people forced from their virtual boundaries), but also the heroes of old re-proposed by some yellow and some science fiction, that the names of Maigret and Superman are in an exemplary manner. These heroes are not invincible, but, like Achilles, they have some sort of heel, whether it be the kryptonite, or any pistol or insult criminal unforeseen by the hero.
the novel by Raymond Queneau Blue Flowers (Les Fleurs Bleues , 1965) I arrived late, nella traduzione per me postuma di Italo Calvino, uno scrittore razionalizzatore della realtà e della narrativa, al punto che un lettore come me si è dovuto chiedere: dove finisce Calvino e inizia Queneau?
Questa ipotesi di viaggio da lettore mi ha accompagnato nell’intero tragitto che dall’incipit del romanzo conduce alla sua fine. Dopo un po’, a forza di giochi di parole su giochi di parole, appariva evidente una certa vena queneauiana (o queneauesca) che forviava la lettura dai meccanismi della scrittura del celebre narratore italiano. I fiori blu apparivano allora un racconto divertentissimo vergato dalla penna maestra di un inventore di storie e situazioni unexpected, as the interpretation of the greatest comedians of this century speakers (Chaplin, Totò, Sellers, Benigni, de Funès) would fit in wonderfully. Imagine the main character, a duke of the thirteenth century, who fell asleep dreaming of being an underdog quiet urban living on a barge, who fell asleep in turn, becomes the Duke of Auge. Two parallel stories running through the novel, but with characters who, in the flow of events and dreams (one who dreams the future, the other the past), they ran into clichés and savor common beverages. Sooner or later, staying in the same situation (in the case of Cidrolin) or going up the story (and il caso del duca d’Auge), i due si incontrano nei tempi moderni. Alla fiducia nei propri mezzi dell’eroe medievale, impegnatissimo in avventure e ribellioni e alti consigli nobiliari, fa eco a futura distanza, come da una grotta della modernità, l’antieroe Cidrolin, immobile e sonnacchioso nella sua chiatta, come se non vi fossero speranze di innovazione nella vita dell’uomo contemporaneo. Tutta la realtà, così vivida nella penna di Queneau, non è che un sogno continuo, mentre la realtà vera, di chi non sogna, appare destinata a morire.
Da questo romanzo divertentissimo e ricco di critiche alla storia dell’uomo e alle sue etnicità sono state drawn various interpretations (psychoanalytic, anthropological, sociological and historical studies). Just think of the female figures that pass through the novel, the kick in the pants that you take the daughters of the Duke of Cidrolin emancipation of those, the kinds of behaviors of the two protagonists. Each episode, even seemingly marginal, has the advantage, in addition to arouse laughter, to contain a critique of human reason, as in the case of secondary characters, such as the justice who is always thinking and never dream, who died in the collapse of a building "under construction" (as the rational thought). Taking into account the assumption of the philosophy of Descartes, the founder of the seventeenth-century rationalism ("Je pense, donc je suis": "I think therefore I am"), it appears the negative evaluation directed by Queneau who, believing to exist insofar as he thinks, is to leave the field to the life of the dreamer, in a novel dedicated to dreams and imagination as crucial for any lasting reality Costituto ed'ogni achievement and technical innovation, artistic, technological and legal future.
Raymond Queneau's novel is one of the best examples of how the inventiveness of the writing she married the writer's sanity, challenging existing patterns of a reality that the language and styles lucky and fashion are likely to mislead in seriousness vacuous and ephemeral and poses pennivendoli market. From a political point of view, the rhetoric of the many boastful of elections appears in a more lasting of any historical context, the extraordinary description of the men of power and their mental mechanisms, their arrogance and generosity towards their evil submissive. Aesthetics and style should be added to this formidable political prize to the author.
[Posted in: News ... Backlight, No VIII/11, November 1999, p. 12. ]
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