Stupor comes from the Latin stupeo , which Giovanni Semerano [1] compares with the Akkadian suppù, subbù (“to look upon something from afar, to form a concept,” etc.). This is particularly true in poetry. When I compose a poem, I look upon myself from afar, and from that distance I recognise myself. But what kind of distance is this? It is the distance between not being what you truly are and what you truly are within. It is this distance that stupefies me - stupet myself - and this recognition happens through that sentiment we call poetry. Poetry is first of all the presence of a feeling of stupor ; only if you stupes - if you are struck, astonished -can you feel that sentiment. Think of Pirandello’s Uno, nessuno e centomila and ask yourself why the protagonist cannot recognise himself. It is because he cannot feel that stupor , that looking‑upon himself from afar which allows one to recognise oneself from the distance between what one is not and what one is. He has becom...
Laboratorio di scrittura