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A Man Without Truth
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| 09/12/2010 |
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“The British government is cutting funds for universities and culture, and I’ve obviously been very involved in the fight against all of this,” says Iain Pears, a writer, journalist, art critic and author of Stone's Fall, presented today by Ranieri Polese as part of the Dark Page.
The book opens in 1953, with the funeral of a woman, and then travels back in time, to uncover the truth of a family, as well as the story of an economic crisis of the late 19th century that greatly resembles the crisis of today. “I began writing this book three years before the current crisis began. I use history a lot in my books because I’m interested in understanding the present, in finding analogies and differences. Today, bankers are all economists. But if they knew the history of 1890, the current situation we find ourselves in would probably be better,” says Pears.
The writer knows Italy very well. Sent to cover the Vatican for Reuters (“They were looking for a journalist who was also knowledgeable on art”), he became a financial writer. But even before that, he even worked in a Fiat factory, which says Pears, “served me very well when I came to be a correspondent. In general, people are only interested in the folkloristic aspects of Italy: the mafia, the excessive bureaucracy, corruption. I, however, know another Italy, that of a laborious creativity. These kinds of articles interested few people, however. They always seek stereotypes. I often use journalists in my books. They’re people who think they know everything, but actually all they know is what is told them, but if they were told truly everything, they wouldn’t be able to print that.”
So the search for truth is as spasmodic as it is in vain, one of the peculiar traits of Pears’ book, such as in the novels featuring inspector Taddeo Bottardi, set in the art world, of which Stone’s Fall is part. “The books I write follow a kind of scientific model, in which facts are given an explanation that works until a better explanation is found. In my books, unlike in traditional crime stories that try to impose a truth, there always exists the option that what is uncovered is not true. I like to cite the story of a famous Roman forger who in confessing to work that was his included some paintings that were certainly originals. You have never be sure of having the absolute truth.”
When speaking about relationships with the truth and journalistic ethics, the conversation naturally turns to Wikileaks. “I believe that Wikileaks’ role is a fundamental one. The only risk it runs is that authority is given to dispatches written on the basis of informal chats. For the time being, the situation is interesting, little more. Yet the image one has of [Julian] Assange certainly does not correspond to the typical model of the American journalist.”
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