Ready for more Moravia? Richard and Bellezza and I thought we might try another after our holiday weekend read of Contempt. In Richard's case, he could not put off indulging in more self-alienation a moment longer, and has already picked up a copy of The Conformist. But we will all come together again on the next holiday weekend, July 3-5, to discuss Boredom. And we would be thrilled if you are interested in joining the conversation.
And what will we find lurking in this next offering of spare but devastating prose?
The novels that the great Italian writer Alberto Moravia wrote in the years following World War II represent an extraordinary survey of the range of human behavior in a fragmented modern society. Boredom, the story of a failed artist and pampered son of a rich family who becomes dangerously attached to a young model, examines the complex relations between money, sex, and imperiled masculinity. This powerful and disturbing study in the pathology of modern life is one of the masterworks of a writer who, as Anthony Burgess once remarked, was “always trying to get to the bottom of the human imbroglio.” NYRB
Or even more compelling:
Boredom is Moravia’s most succinct exploration of the quiet desperation at the heart of the automated human…one of Moravia’s funniest explorations on the origins of middle-class funk. Bill Marx, Boston Review
The detailing of middle-class funk is a common and over-indulged exercise but an exploration of the origins? Well, this should be interesting.
Join us?