spaziolibero

There is a lot that can be taken home after reading this book: boundless admiration for Westover's courage, resilience (for once the word is not misused) and persistence, huge awe in what she accomplished, moreso given the starting conditions, sheer joy discovering, along with her, how the world is bigger and more diverse than we could ever have dreamt. But for me, the main feeling was fury. Unbridled, unrelenting fury towards her ignorant, bigoted, violent, manipulative, conspiracy-whackos of a family. I know, Westover became who she became also because she grew up in that environment, and there is no telling what her story would have been had she lived a more ordinary childhood; besides I know I have no rights whatsoever to be angrier at her family that she herself is, and I very much understand the strength and depth of family ties, even when they are anything but sane... but the fury was there nevertheless. I guess it shows how much I was invested in Westover rem...

[This review is for both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass .] I know at least three people that consider the adventures of Alice their favourite books, or at least among their favourite books, but I cannot join their ranks. Mind you, I really enjoyed both books (Wonderland more than Looking Glass) but more as an intellectual, linguistic and mathematical game than as a fascinating tale: they spoke more to my brain than they did to my heart, if you will. Probably because I never read them as a kid, so I missed the experience I described thirteen years ago (!) speaking about The Neverending Story (in italian only, sorry): finding, in a book I loved as a beautiful fable, deeper meanings and more adult interpretations, which I could never have grasped as a ten-years-old. Here’s the rub: with these two books I missed the most simple and basic level of interpretation, that of the open-mouthed, wide-eyed kid that follows Alice in her ...

A true miscellany, this first collection of Gaiman works includes short stories, poems, reviews, magazine articles and a few items that I frankly don't know how to pigeonhole. At times it's a bit green and naive, but more often than not, Gaiman's talent shines through, and even in the weakest pieces there is at least an intuition, an image, a fragment to remember. All in all, I would not recommend this as a starting point for Gaiman's work; but if you already are familiar with his writing, it's well worth reading, if only for Chivalry , which tells of an old lady who finds the Holy Grail in a secondhand shop. // Una miscellanea nel vero senso della parola, questa è la prima raccolta pubblicata da Gaiman, e comprende racconti, poesie, recensioni, articoli e un paio di testi che francamente non so come incasellare. A tratti è un po' acerba e ingenua, ma quasi sempre il talento di Gaiman emerge, e anche nei brani meno riusciti si trova almeno un...

Due parole sulla prima stagione* di The Mandalorian . Sgombriamo subito il campo dalla questione principale: sì, Baby Yoda** è una delle cose più spudoratamente かわいい mai viste su uno schermo, ma per fortuna è anche un personaggio che ha un suo ruolo nella serie e non è stato inserito solo per fare venire gli occhi a cuoricino e per vendere tonnellate di gadget, quindi va benissimo. Detto questo: The Mandalorian funziona, e su diversi livelli. Funziona la storia, uno dei più classici tòpoi del western (e non solo): il cacciatore di taglie senza nome, e dal passato misterioso ma sicuramente traumatico che fa finalmente i conti con quello in cui crede e quello a cui è disposto a rinunciare. Funziona l'ambientazione, appunto western, ma con astronavi, droidi e blaster: in fondo, quello che è sempre stato Star Wars , ossia una rilettura in ambientazione fantascientifica di storie e situazioni pescate (tra l'altro) dall'epica, dalla narrativa d'avventura, dai film di gue...