No one studies anymore today. It’s for those doomed to defeat. It evokes the poet Leopardi, who lost his youth, ruined his health and stayed alone as a dog, or Pinocchio selling his books to go see the marionettes. It recalls school, pimply teenagers, drudgery, boredom, duty. It’s the shadow that obscured the world, a crack in the wall, fracturing and darkening our rich pleasure-seeking will to live in the present. Study has disappeared from our lives. And with it the pleasure of things done without thinking about what purpose they serve. The most incredible thing is that it doesn’t matter to anybody.
“Whoever studies is always a rebel. Someone who goes in the other direction with respect to the rest of the world, and in his or her way, goes against the current. Whoever studies must stop and stay put, thus rendering themselves contrarian and subversive. Maybe, behind it all, there is always some dissatisfaction: with oneself, or with the world. But it’s never an escape. It’s only a silent rebellion, and today more than ever, it’s invisible. This book is dedicated to all the invisible rebels – to the timid ones, the discontents, the introverts, the outcasts, the scholars.”
Paola Mastrocola
Paola Mastrocola was born and lives in Turin. She has a very special voice among Italian contemporary writers and bestseller authors. She is the author of La gallina volante (2000, Premio Calvino), Palline di pane (2001), Una barca nel bosco (Premio Campiello 2004), La scuola raccontata al mio cane (2004), Che animale sei? (2007), Più lontana della luna (2007), La felicità del galleggiante (2010), Togliamo il disturbo. Saggio sulla libertà di non studiare (2011), Non so niente di te (2013), L’esercito delle cose inutili (2015), La passione ribelle (2015), L’anno che non caddero le foglie (2016), L’amore prima di noi (2016), Leone (2018), Diario di una talpa (2020), La saggezza del lupo (2020), Se tu fossi vero (2021), Il danno scolastico (con Luca Ricolfi, 2021), Manifesto del libero pensiero (con Luca Ricolfi, 2022), La memoria del cielo (2023). Her books have been translated in France, Germany, Spain and Latin America, Portugal, Turkey and Japan.