Why we are sad and why Italian people are the saddest: the fault in our education
We Italian people, we have to suffer.
It's in our DNA.
And in our academic program too.
I am recently reading P.G. Wodehouse.
Such a beautiful discovery. He's fun, his stories are entertaining, has a witty humour and a great construction. I read once that he has a peculiar method to write a story, involving wall and notes in a specific order. He is a visual thinker I suppose and I love it. Also he is quoted as a major influence in Douglas Adams -the Hitchhiker’s Guide- works and I can tell there are big connections between their stories and their style for sure.
My current reading led me to the truest thruth: we Italian are destined to suffer.
Why?
Well, let's begin with the fact that no one in high school have ever mentioned me of P.G. Wodehouse. What are you thinking about, I have to read all this cursed Italian author -beatifully written and philosophical and other stuff- but WHY no one have suggested me P.G. Wodehouse?
The only English or American authors they made me read eventually died young, poor, are mentally ill and writing pompous novels about death. I ended up writing teen depressing -beatifully written of course but still very depressing- poems about death and void and existential pain.
"So your poems are amazing you win all the contests but can you please enjoy your life? You're so young! Can you be less sad? Life is beautiful!"... Sure, that's what you had taught me about life for sure.
As a melancholy kid, it was easy for me growing an inexplicable sadness, eventually depression. I was a depressed kid.
And I don't blame my genes, I blame the school. And the church of course.
The Christian religion revolvs around suffering, sacrifice, shame, fault, BLOOD.
When I was 4 y.o. I was constantly sketching a cross and a dying Jesus on my colorful playful little board with colored chalk. My mother was worried until she find out that we kid had seen the Passion of the Christ as a cartoon version in kindergarten.
I sketched crosses -like, torture instrument- like I was possessed by the devil but nothing trumatizing here.
Are you kidding me?
My life is full of drama and the drama happened too soon.
I was just a kid, a cutie innocent little baby girl that loves to draw and suddenly I became the character of some creepy exorcism movie.
I was sensitive and it hurts so much, I had to cover my eyes and I finally manage to left the room cause I was about to faint but I was too diligent and shy to even ask for permission. Just to give you some details.
I was not wearing military print clothes cause camouflage make me think about war and deads.
How can they have possibly forced me to watch the Passion of the Christ? A crucifixion, to be clear. Nevertheless, it happened.
They obviously have had a big role in messing up with my brain and with the constant shame and fault and sadness. I legitimately think I'm mentally ill because of them. Influenced by the environment they say. Well, that was the environment.
Italian culture are very much influenced by religion. Even too much influence, in my opinion.
So when I read as a teen Piergiorgio Odifreddi "Why we can't be Christian, and much less Catholic" book, I was enlightened. From that prospective religion seems the less right thing I was forced into life. As a girl I can't be Pope one day and it just doesn't make sense to me. I think that were feminist thoughs now.
This sadistic obsession with suffering run through our Italian veins and permeated the whole academic courses.
I can tell you that an enormous amount of authors and novelist and poets I read as a teen were depressing as hell.
Life is short, you will suffer, we're going to die soon.
Let's make some stuff sticked to this concept.
I never ever read a funny, entertaining author suggested by theachers. I really enjoyed fantasy writers and they took them away from me. You're a grown up, fantasy books are for kid. You, ignorant -yells insult- I red Terry Brooks. Also the contemporary one are all about pain. Better no to mention the philosophy.
So when I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at the age of 20 and then I red Adams view of life and written works I was trilled.
Beware, under the ton of witty sentences, lies a bitter vision of life. But he delivered it with humor and unforgettable stories at least, that makes the thruth less hard to swallow. And you can read Douglas Adams and enjoy it.
And yes, life and the universe and everything are messy and way crazy and nonsense at all, but you can accept all this revelations with a subtle smile on your face.
So let's introduce such authors as P.G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams book's extracts in our school study programs -maybe the Italian ones- and I promise we'r eventually growing up as less depressed guilty ashamed adult and maybe we could live our childhood as more playful kids.
