ROVIGO – Literature can «teach us to refine our gaze, looking beyond», as shown by the character of Prince Andrej in “War and Peace”. It also teaches that “Running changes your (life)”: Sandro Siviero and the man from Rovigo explain it (as authentic “runlovers”). Martino Pietropoli. And again, in Giovanni Boniolo’s new book, “Liberal education. The arts of the Trivium for the 21st century”, he helps us find new awareness starting from the past “to look to the future”. Just like Luigi Einaudi said. Because the philosopher of science, former president of the Accademia dei Concordi, teaches us, for example, that artificial intelligence is a pure question of “statistics and probability calculation”: two disciplines that today are indispensable for reasoning, as they were in the Middle Ages the logical rules and argumentative practice among the subjects of the trivium.
TO Rovigoracconta 2024Saturday 1st June with three protagonists from Polesine (after Martino Pietropoli and Giovanni Boniolo it was the turn of Sonia Aggio with the novel nominated for the Strega Prize “In the Emperor’s Room”), the main guests included the master of noir Massimo Carlotto, the internationally renowned psychiatrist Vittorino Andreoli, the professor “who speaks to young people with rare effectiveness” Enrico Galiano, the sociolinguist Vera Gheno and then, on a “screaming” Saturday evening, the reading-show with Guido Catalano “What females do in the bathroom” and, in closing, Vincenzo Schettini. Which in the portraits of the most brilliant scientists in history, from Leonardo da Vinci to Stephen Hawking, tells of their influence on human history. They are exceptional personalities, and “influencers” of their era. But not according to social analysis tools.
THE INFLUENCERS
And so the invitation launched online by @ilprofessorx, namely Guendalina Middei, yesterday in Pescheria nuova with her “Falling in love with Anna Karenina on Saturday evening”, is to ask: “Why do people need one Ferragni or another famous girl tell him how to dress, what to eat, where to go on holiday?”. If you start with the dress and get to the pandoro, what then happens when faced with real choices, when in life you need to chart your own path and perhaps change perspective? In her book, Middei reinterprets classic but highly modern pages. And she quotes Prince Andrew, who, lying on the battlefield of Austerlitz, finds himself thinking that he had never looked at the sky before, “so high, so wide, so bright”. The point, in short, is to choose for yourself. And take back the effort of thinking. As? Even by running you learn: «By running you start to think step by step: running makes you enjoy every meter you do, and makes you understand how important effort is to achieve a result», the runlovers said yesterday in the gardens of Piazza Matteotti Sandro Siviero and Martino Pietropoli, explaining why “Running changes your (life)”.
THE IDEA
In the “society of influencers, where influencing has become more important than making people think, where a photo has more power than a constructive thought and a like counts more than reasoning”, Guendalina Middei reiterated yesterday with a post on Facebook, so here’s why “the idea” – his word – that Giovanni Boniolo proposes in his new book arrives saving. In fact, it contains a proposal that “revises” the three arts that in the Middle Ages made people think well (logic), speak well (rhetoric) and write well (grammar). Today we need “methodology, ability to reason, probability calculation and skills in Statistics”, explained Boniolo at Palazzo Roncale: they are the modern crossroads and the crossroads from which to start towards “the perennial trying and experimenting which is the reason for living” . The intellect, in fact, from these bases and from study is then educated autonomously, with personal inventiveness and also with the appropriation of other people’s inventions, to use them according to one’s own measures. It is said that Leonardo also did it, for the Vitruvian Man and for his engineering drawings, whether they were really the evolution that gave his genius, or his three-dimensional version, of drawings that arrived in Venice in 1434 with a Chinese fleet.
FRIDAY NIGHT
On Friday evening in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, on the first day of Rovigoracconta 2024, Mauro Corona’s “swings” oscillated between laughter and tears. Then, on stage in Piazza Garibaldi with “Cara Giulia”, Gino Cecchettin’s testimony left strong emotions: in dialogue with Marco Franzoso, he moved the audience by urging them to recognize the warning signs of toxic relationships, to talk about it and express every concern , especially when asymmetry takes over responsibility and harmony in a couple. The thought, therefore, went to all the girls who can be saved thanks to the reflections of Giulia Cecchettin’s father. Then, in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, Roby Facchinetti, with great generosity towards a very loyal audience, indulged in memories and regrets by reliving the most significant moments of his private and public life, between one quote and another of Pooh’s songs .
Today, Sunday 2 June, final day of the festival with Jennifer Guerra, Annamaria Testa, Sergio Rizzo, Matteo Righetto, Cathy La Torre, Vito Mancuso (closing at 7.30pm) and many other authors.
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