Contents
A cultural centre for Europe.
Interviews with Ferdinando Camon and Lucio Lami, by Giancarlo
Nicoli
Compiano (Parma), 8th
September 2001.
Images: the annual Italian P.E.N. Prize, by g.n.
Ex Libris: advices to a beginner collector, by Benoît Junod
Reviews.
Can't Buy My Love, by Jean Kilbourne - review by g. n.
(top)
From the editor.
During the first weekend of September, the Italian P.E.N. Club (site) members held their traditional annual meeting. On Saturday 8th, in the afternoon, after an official opened all the voting letters sent to the organizing committee, Mr. Giuseppe Pontiggia has been awarded with the prize. His book is "Nati due volte" ("Born twice" - Mondadori). You'll find a photographic account of the happening, here. There's also a press release from the Italian P.E.N. Club, albeit it's in Italian only. This writers' association has its Internet site (here).
In those days, I got the chance to talk to Mr. Ferdinando Camon (Italian P.E.N. President) and to Mr. Lucio Lami (Vicepresident and organizer of the prize). They agreed to answer a few questions, that appear on this page.
This edition of "Block Notes" holds the first contribution of Mr. Benoît Junod, from Geneve, collector and ex-libris expert. His article particularly addresses those who are just walking their first steps in the ex-libris world. I got the idea to ask Mr. Junod to write this article after I noticed an exchange of emails between Mr. Junod himself and a beginner collector; This exchange occurred within the "exlibris mailing list": you are free to join it.
I hope you'll appreciate it
all.
g. n.
(top)
A cultural centre for Europe.
Interviews with Ferdinando Camon and Lucio Lami, by Giancarlo Nicoli
Ferdinando Camon (his Internet
site is in English as well as in Italian and French) has been introduced
in France by Jean-Paul Sartre. His books are translated in a number of
countries all over the world (in the last months Tukey joined this number).
He is President of the Italian P.E.N. Club since 1999.
Question: "Why did you accept the Italian P.E.N. Club
chairmanship?"
Ferdinando Camon: "There are no Italian agencies nor associations that are able
to bring authors, their books, their ideas, the knowledge of their problems
and suggestions, in more than 100 countries around the world. The P.E.N. delivers. I wished to try this committment, of which today the writers'
effort absolutely needs. I tried (successfully) to establish links with
China, Japan, and with Turkey, which is an European country but that does
not care of our writers (the opposite is also true)."
Q: "May you spend more words about the international ouverture
you gave to the Italian P.E.N. Club (its magazine is sent to Italian
Centres of Culture around the world, to all P.E.N. Clubs, you write
to the P.E.N. Presidents of many countries, recommending the translation
in these places of Italian books...)?"
FC: "The Italian P.E.N. Club had the need of
a light, low-cost magazine, easy to get to print, able to put us in touch
with the Italian Centres of Culture around the world and all P.E.N. Clubs. We
made it. Before it, too much had gone lost: Moravia's speeches, for example,
those Mr. Moravia held as an Italian P.E.N. President, are lost for ever. It
will not happen any more. We keep through the magazine what we do, we keep
it in print and in the floppy disks.
I experienced that all P.E.N.
Presidents quickly answer to our faxes and letters. Pity, there are many
subjects worth of dialogue with them (for example: war, fundamentalism,
dictatorships, censorships, carnages...), subjects that the International P.E.N. should put to the wide audience, because they especially regard the
International P.E.N., not a national P.E.N. like the ours. We do what we can do."
Q: "What do you think about your
chairmanship, so far?"
FC: "If well served, the chairmanship is
interesting, useful, rewarding. It has a drawback: it costs a lot of
phisical resources. I'm starting to lack them."
Q: "What dreams do you have for the Italian P.E.N. Club of
tomorrow?"
FC: "If the
dream of Lucio Lami comes true (to have an European P.E.N. prize), suddenly the
links and contacts with all European countries would become closer, more
frequent, more rewarding. We'll become a cultural centre for Europe."
Lucio Lami is Vicepresident of the Italian P.E.N. Club and organizer of the Prize. Here is a biography, taken from a book published to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the "Max David prize" for the "reporter of the year". Sorry, it's in Italian only.
Question: "What
do you think is due to strenghten the Italian P.E.N. Club?"
Lucio Lami: "A true activity for the “Writers in prison” committee.
I think there are two reasons: because it represents the more advanced soul
of the P.E.N., and because I believe it is possible to attract the great
writers in our association only flying that flag.”
D: "How is
going on your idea to transform the Italian Prize (for the best book of the
year) into an Eurpoean one?"
LL: "With
a lot of effort. I talk to the Parma province officials, with officials of
the Emilia Romagna region, and I’m trying to approach the Culture
Minister. We need funding and infrastructure. I keep going, albeit I know
that culture, at the institutional level, it’s a hard sell. The next
spring I’ll be able to say if this effort will meet success. Sometimes, as
it happens, I have second thougths. The effort is demanding, and my own work
suffers. I’m always impressed by the fact that there are so many
subscribing associates that keep silent, that doesn’t participate even to
the (annual) Compiano meetings. The P.E.N. is no academy."
D: "If the
purpose of the national prize was to give the P.E.N. a wide Italian
publicity, which would be the purpose of the European Prize?"
LL: "To make happen an annual meeting, able to let European P.E.N.
members share their opinions, talk with each other of culture and
freedom. It’s what we feel there’s huge need. We don’t know with each
other, and the actual meeting ourselves would let us overturn those
barriers the P.E.N. was established for. The problem is, to organize
an annual meeting of that level, much money and adequate ingrastructures
are needed. And they are not easy to get."
(c) 2001 Artifex.
