In the first volume ofSaturn's Ring I explore years far away, but close to my heart: the 1990s. Years of cartoons on Italia Uno, the Knights of the Zodiac, Ken the Warrior on La Sette, Mimi Ayuara, Hello Spank and a thousand others.
But not only that: these were years when there was no cell phone, no Internet. To know anything, people still used the famous 12-volume encyclopedia, the dictionary, the geographic atlas. Knowledge was at home, literally, in the books that sat in libraries. A knowledge that was not very mobile, certainly, but one that obliged those who sought it to take a step forward, to make that small effort necessary to then appreciate the result.
I still remember as a child my mother telling me to go look in the encyclopedia after my umpteenth request of "what does this mean?" So I learned to search by alphabetical index and, in the process of reading the mystery word, I would also discover others, close by. One day, I don't remember exactly at what age, I felt like opening the dictionary at random and reading it until I came across a word unknown to me. I would read it and then close it again.
In the word there is thought, the possibility of imagining. In the beginning - not surprisingly - it was the verb. True knowledge starts from the knowledge of words. And this is something that Anna, in the book, well understood. She, so curious and eager to learn about the past, about ancient civilizations, learns words, languages, which are the key to knowledge.
But the 1990s were also years when values were different. I definitely do not want to fall into the rhetoric of "it was better in my time," because it was not. The world is wonderful, and its steady march forward, regardless of us, regardless of the passing years, is a manifestation of the vital power that animates us all.
Society changes, develops, moves on. Words, customs, habits and even values change.
The 1990s were years when Italy stopped on Sundays to listen to soccer on the radio in the hope of having made 13 on the totocalcio. Social aggregation was much stronger. Tables and gatherings were something normal. Kids grew up hanging out outside the domestic hearth. There was less fear on the part of parents to let them hang out in the squares until late in the evening.
Catholic and Christian values were much more ingrained. Marriage and Mass were an integral part of most families. I think they still are, but it is clear to me that things have changed quite a bit from that point of view. Multiculturalism brings with it transformations that often dilute traditions.
I love traditions, I think they represent the pinnacle of folk wisdom. They are rituals that have overcome the barrier of time, that have survived to us because they are true, profound. But the world moves on, and certain traditions are no longer compatible with modern values.
This is what I talk about in Divine Adventure. The main character, Overton, is named exactly after "Overton's Window," a socio-economic principle that defines this window as the range of things that are "socially acceptable." This window moves through time, just as Overton continues to evolve, regardless of his surroundings.
Certain things, on the other hand, I think have not changed: human nature, love, fear, desires, that deep dichotomy that compels us to seek personal happiness within a society made up of a thousand others like us, to stand out but not become hermits. Our search for balance.
It is no coincidence that the classics, whether English, Russian, French, Greek, Latin, Italian, are still relevant. Those who read me know my position regarding contemporaneity and classicism. I am for anthropological values that do not decay. I try to find, in this contemporaneity of ours, universal values. In the Divine Adventure, it is the search for perfection, the desire to belong to a group, religion as salvation from the nothingness we are afraid of.
And in Saturn's Ring, it is love, destiny, the burden of our choices. For those who have read the first volume, these themes have not yet emerged, they are only sketched out, as they should be. But you will see that as the story develops, these themes will become dominant and lead you, I hope, to ask important questions about remorse and regret.
I will not stop trying to address the values and themes that drive us to action, that have driven many before us and that will drive many after us.
As I anticipated, for the next saga I want to engage you. So even before I share a story with you, I want to figure out what values I might address.
Choose: revenge, brotherhood, sickness, sacrifice, disillusionment, redemption or obsession?