The visionary genius of Pasolini told by the one who more than others knew the deep soul of the Bolognese intellectual. Dacia Maraini pays tribute to his great friend Pier Paolo Pasolini with a collection of letters entitled "Dear Pier Paolo"(Neri pozza), on the occasion of the 100 years since the writer's birth, poet and director. The book, out today 3 March, is made up of a series of letters that Maraini wanted to "send" to her dear Pier Paolo. It is a sort of "dialogue" with the deceased friend, which shows the great and sincere friendship that bound the two writers, remembering pieces of their life together, such as travels in the company of Alberto Moravia e Maria Callas In Africa. The idea of “Caro Pier Paolo” came thanks to the push of Robert Cotroneo, who convinced Maraini to put on paper her memories of (and with) Pasolini.
Dear Pier Paolo: where dreams and memories intertwine
Pasolini and Dacia Maraini shared a villa in Sabaudia. As reported in the description of "Dear Pier Paolo", there the author thinks about it while she runs over the bumps, with a serious, thoughtful face and bright eyes, then imagining him running on the dunes in a sky that is no longer hostile. Maraini says of to dream often his dear friends who have now disappeared, including Pasolini. Dreams played a central role in the genesis of “Caro Pier Paolo”. These are intertwined with Pasolini's memories and are the perfect ground for current reflections of the author on the figure of the intellectual and friend Pier Paolo. Dacia Maraini does not dwell only on the sweet memories lived with Pasolini. She also mentions hers mysterious death, which took place in November of 1975 at the Ostia seaplane base. Despite Pino Pelosi has been convicted as the only culprit, Dacia Maraini has always had doubts about it, also asking for a long time to reopen the investigation.
Pasolini: original poet and rebellious intellectual
“Dear Pier Paolo” is not just the memory of a friendship, but also the portrait of an extraordinary man. Pasolini was a poet, writer and director in many ways prophetic, always sincere, nonconformist e provocative. For these and other reasons, he was given the nickname of "uncomfortable intellectual". Pasolini was this. His vision of society, even if cynical, was always Glossy it's real. Dacia Maraini proposes all these traits of Pasolini's character, but also recalls the solitude that gripped the soul of his friend. One of the most interesting aspects of Pasolini for the author is hers to be a poet. In “Caro Pier Paolo”, Maraini cites some of the most beautiful poems written by Pasolini, which reveal the author's deepest essence and originality.
The letters that Dacia Maraini dedicates to her friend in "Dear Pier Paolo" represent a wonderful testimony of the life and thought of Pasolini, a man and intellectual among the most influential of the second half of the twentieth century in Italy. Surely a text that deserves to be savored and studied in depth, to get to know the figure of Pier Paolo Pasolini better, discussed as a brilliant poet, writer and director, who knew how to tell lucid cynicism the Italian post-economic boom society.
Cover photo: © Neri Pozza Editore.
