FELLINI HANS H ENNY JAHNN HEDAYAT RILKE VALÉRY MUSIL ESTERHÁZY EMILIO VILLA & MORE Volume VIII, No. 2 (winter 2014) ! !!! MAST HEAD ! Publisher: Contra Mundum Press Location: New York, London, Melbourne Editors: Rainer J. Hanshe, Erika Mihálycsa PDF Design: Giuseppe Bertolini Logo Design: Liliana Orbach Advertising & Donations: Giovanni Piacenza (To contact Mr. Piacenza: [email protected]) CMP Website: Bela Fenyvesi & Atrio LTD. Letters to the editors are welcome and should be e-mailed to: [email protected] Hyperion is published biannually by Contra Mundum Press, Ltd. P.O. Box 1326, New York, NY 10276, U.S.A. W: http://contramundum.net For advertising inquiries, e-mail Giovanni Piacenza: [email protected] Contents © 2014 Contra Mundum Press & each respective author. All Rights Reserved. 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olume VIII, No. 2 (winter 2014) Table of Contents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`!D&31:*'#S!! a*!9:%:)$!9211#%Q3!@;"&)A1B1!"CNNN!! !!!!!! !!!47LF67LA8! ! !!!!!G:&*#%!;N!9:*3-#+!DW3&%!#1!D&31:*'#! !!!! !!!47M567ML8! 9:%:)$!9211#%+!@;"&)A1B1!"CNNN!<#='#%>1?!! ! !!!47MM67FA8! UJ%#!B]#J#1-.!`!H&I)b3!B]#*1I21-.!(*!B\%&!c#%)b'].!!!!!47K567KM8! B:%&!c#%)b'].+!D%:d&*C3!`!0:&*1&*C3!! ! !!!47KF67A58! [%&I:!H&-\).'3:+!G#R&#d!(P!4,%)&);1:&#$31*(+D91(E11 2+#%(F(5&#")12(-+%)&#$!!!!!!47A767AA8! ! FEDERICO FELLINI Why Satyricon? Why Petronius? Translated by Christopher B. White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als, opportunities, and occasions that observing everyday reality and reading the newspaper, for example, are capa- ble of supplying with a more generous and stimulating richness and immediacy. Cinema depicts its worlds, stories, and characters through images. Its form of expression is figurative, like that of dreams. Don’t dreams fascinate you, scare you, thrill you, disturb you, and nurture you with images? It seems to me that words and dialogue in movies serve to inform you, to permit you to rationally follow the event and give it a sense of verisimilitude according to the reali- ty we’re accustomed to; but it’s precisely this operation, references to so-called everyday reality echoing on the images, that takes away at least in part that unreal aspect of the dreamed image, that visual aspect of dreams. In fact, silent cinema has its own mysterious beauty, an evocative power of seduction that makes it more real than sound film because it’s closer to the images in dreams; they’re always more alive and real than anything we can see and touch. So why Satyricon? Why Petronius? You have to have an excuse to begin, and who knows why this time I chose Satyricon. I read Petronius’ book for the first time many years ago, back when I was in high school, an edition of the text with illustrations so inten- tionally chaste and ugly that it made them all the more erotic. The memory of that reading long ago has always been particularly vivid in my mind, and over time that in- terest slowly became a constant and obscure temptation. I just reread Satyricon after so many years, maybe less vo- raciously than before, but it was just as entertaining, and 1 this fresh reading made the temptation to base a film on it more intriguing. Satyricon is a mysterious text because it’s fragmen- tary. Although its fragmentary nature is emblematic in a certain sense. It’s emblematic of the way the ancient world appears to us today. This is the true appeal of the book and the world it depicts. It’s like an unfamiliar land- scape wrapped in dense fog that you catch glimpses of when it unveils itself now and then. Renaissance Human- ists used antiquity to justify and explain themselves, pro- jecting their preconceived notion of antiquity onto it. But I can’t project anything; I don’t have preconceptions. For me the ancient world is a lost world and my ignorance of it leaves me with no connection to it other than a fantas- tic, imaginative one, nurtured by hypotheses and impres- sions severed from facts and historical knowledge. School, or at least the school I attended, almost al- ways drowns out and freezes the content it aims to cover; it impoverishes it and reduces it to an interminable series of meaningless, abstract notions with no point of refer- ence in the end. The discovery and knowledge of the an- cient world you acquire in school, for example, is the ca- dastral or nomenclatural sort, it encourages a relationship to that world made up of mistrust, boredom, and disin- terest, at best a morbid, abject, or rather racist curiosity, in any case it doesn’t concern you and is disagreeable like math or chemistry, irrelevant like the training you under- go before national military service. The ruins? The Appian Way? Or better yet the pho- tos of ruins and the Appian Way you see in history books or on postcards? Watered-down ghosts, lifeless features, cemetery perspectives soaked in funereal sadness for 2 smug photographers’ exhibitions, especially the German ones who take pictures of these ruins against the light at sunset with a couple of little fluffy clouds in the fore- ground. The frescoes in Pompeii? Herculaneum? What I saw of the Capitoline Museums didn’t impress me much; it was obscured by the dullness it acquired from those gloomy readings and lectures in school. The splendid un- changed state of the exhibits that fill the museums is about as familiar as those scholastic notions or the casu- alness of personal suggestions. At a certain point I thought I recognized the sickly, frightened little face of a cousin of mine from the countryside in a marble bust with empty eyes. Her name was Jole and she had red hair. She was always sick in bed when I saw her and she had to drink constantly. For a moment I felt like there was an imper- ceptible contact, a fleeting understanding between us; that bust had Jole’s face, I caressed its braided stone hair, “Who knows if you can help me a little..