The moment you are not here to defend your work in interviews, you literally do not exist. There is a penalty. Javier Marías, The Art of Fiction No. 190, interviewed by Sarah Fay, in: The Paris Review (E se lo dice lui nessuno ha più scampo, allora).
It was hostility toward the media, which doesn’t pay attention to books themselves and which values a work according to the author’s reputation. It’s surprising, for example, how the most widely admired Italian writers and poets are also known as scholars or are employed in high-level editorial jobs or in other prestigious fields. It’s as if literature were not capable of demonstrating its seriousness simply through texts but required “external” credentials. In a similar category—if we leave the university or the publisher’s office—are the literary contributions of politicians, journalists, singers, actors, directors, television producers, et cetera. Here, too, the works do not find in themselves authorization for their existence but need a pass that comes from work done in other fields. “I’m a success in this or that field, I’ve acquired an audience, and therefore I wrote and published a novel.” It’s not the book that counts but the aura of its author. If the aura is already there, and the media reinforces it, the publishing world is happy to open its doors and the market is happy to welcome you. If it’s not there but the book miraculously sells, the media invents the author, so the writer ends up selling not only his work but also himself, his image.Elena Ferrante on The Paris Review
Poi è stata l’ostilità per i media che non prestavano attenzione ai libri in loro stessi. Non è il libro che conta, per loro, ma l’aura del suo autore.
Anche adesso, spiega la Ferrante, l’interesse primario del mantenere l’anonimato è «una testimonianza contro la auto-promozione ossessivamente imposta dai media». Secondo la scrittrice, «questa richiesta di autopromozione diminuisce il lavoro vero in ogni tipo di attività umana ed è diventata universale. I media non sono in grado di discutere un’opera d’arte senza trovarci dietro un protagonista. E invece non c’è opera letteraria che non sia frutto di una tradizione, di una sorta di intelligenza collettiva che sminuiamo quando insistiamo che dietro ci sia un protagonista».
Il Mattino, 6 marzo 2015
Benedetta Saglietti 