{"id":4705,"date":"2015-07-07T02:38:16","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T02:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelwagstaff.com\/?p=4705"},"modified":"2016-11-01T16:31:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T16:31:47","slug":"from-the-preface-to-ignazio-silones-fontamara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/from-the-preface-to-ignazio-silones-fontamara\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Preface to Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara"},"content":{"rendered":"

The art of storytelling — the art of putting one word after another, one line after another, one sentence after another, explaining one thing at a time, without allusions or reservations, calling bread bread and wine wine — is just like the ancient art of weaving, the ancient art of putting one thread after another, one color after another, cleanly, neatly, perseveringly, plainly for all to see. First you see the stem of the rose, then the calyx, then the petals. You can see from the beginning that it is going to be a rose, and for that reason the townsfolk think our products coarse and crude. But have we ever gone to town and tried to sell them? Have we ever asked townspeople to tell their story in our way? No, we have not.<\/p>\n

Let everyone, then, have the right to tell his own story in his own way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The art of storytelling — the art of putting one word after another, one line after another, one sentence after another, explaining one thing at a time, without allusions or reservations, calling bread bread and wine wine — is just like the ancient art of weaving, the ancient art of putting one thread after another, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"From the Preface to Ignazio Silone's Fontamara","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[858,249,8],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reading","tag-ignazio-silone","tag-storytelling","tag-writing"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/silone.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Steel Wagstaff","author_link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/author\/steel\/"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/silone.jpg?fit=654%2C441&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/silone.jpg?resize=600%2C441&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd6z5D-1dT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4724,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/ignazio-silones-bread-and-wine\/","url_meta":{"origin":4705,"position":0},"title":"Ignazio Silone’s Bread and Wine","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"July 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished\u00a0Bread and Wine, the second book in Ignazio Silone's The Abruzzio Trilogy (translated by Eric Mosbacher). The book is a moving, funny, and sometimes unbelievable look into provincial life in Italy under Mussolini. Set near the\u00a0start of the\u00a0Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the novel largely focuses on a character named\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reading Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Reading Notes","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading-notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover of Ignazio Silone's Bread and Wine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bread_wine.jpg?fit=717%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bread_wine.jpg?fit=717%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bread_wine.jpg?fit=717%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bread_wine.jpg?fit=717%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4719,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/ignazio-silones-fontamara\/","url_meta":{"origin":4705,"position":1},"title":"Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"July 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At the recommendation of my friend Spencer, I recently began reading the Italian novelist Ignazio Silone's\u00a0The Abruzzio Trilogy, beginning with his 1933 novel\u00a0Fontamara. It is an extraordinary bit of social-realist inflected anti-fascist satire, and I found myself quickly devouring it and eager to begin the next book in the series.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reading Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Reading Notes","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading-notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover of the 1st edition of Ignazio Silone's Fontamara","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Fontamara_1st_edition.jpg?fit=400%2C336&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4742,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/three-versions-of-an-objectivist-poetics\/","url_meta":{"origin":4705,"position":2},"title":"Three versions of an Objectivist Poetics","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"August 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Grandmother, have you ever looked a donkey in the eyes?\" \"I may have done, my dear boy, I don't remember.\" \"In that case you haven't, because otherwise you'd certainly remember. 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In practice, both are difficult, elusive, and have not always felt desirable or worthy of recommendation to others, particularly to those who suffer injustice.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/to-be-a-carer\/","url_meta":{"origin":4705,"position":5},"title":"To be a Carer","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"April 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been thinking a great deal lately about the medical profession, and more broadly, about health. 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