One, None and a Hundred Thousand: A novel

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One, No One and One Hundred Thousand translated into English by William Weaver, 1990, Marsilio ( ISBN 0-941419-74-6). Because,” he said to me, “if your mother had given birth again, she would surely have had another male.” Perché avevo voluto dimostrare, che potevo, anche per gli altri, non essere quello che mi si credeva.

At first, with an ailing wife and no money, Pirandello contemplated suicide. Instead, he redoubled his efforts. He took on more teaching work and wrote at a furious pace. He would go on to write 7 novels, numerous short stories, poetry, and around 40 plays throughout his career. Credeva d’essere uno, scoprì d’essere centomila, decise d’essere nessuno. Scivolò nella follia (follia?) per trovare riparo, salvezza e liberazione, per morire e rinascere ogni giorno, nuovo e completo.From that day on, my most ardent desire was to be alone, at least for an hour. But, to tell the truth, it was not a desire, it was a need: a pressing, anxious, acute need, which the presence or vicinity of my wife exacerbated to the point of rage. Moscarda grappled with this new knowledge: that he was not who he thought he was, nor who anyone else thought he was. And the people around him? They were not who he thought they were either. But what other did I have inside me, except this torment that revealed me as no one and as a hundred thousand ? But the problem is, despite beginning from premises which aren’t particularly controversial, One, No One, And One Hundred Thousand proceeds to draw out some very questionable conclusions. Beginning from the premise that we’re viewed differently by each of those around us, it jumps to the argument that one person is actually hundreds, if not thousands of different people. This may initially seem like a harmless metaphor, but Pirandello in fact goes so far as reifying this metaphor, treating distinct conceptions as if they were sufficient to give birth to distinct living and breathing bodies:

Questi elementi sono ben delineati in un interessante saggio di Andrea Camilleri Biografia del figlio cambiato di cui consiglio la lettura perchè getta uno sguardo diverso su tutta la produzione pirandelliana. Are you who you really think you are? Nope, that is just one of the “one hundred thousand” sides that make up the whole of you. These sides are the many versions of yourself seen by the people around you. You can only see your “own” version of yourself, but is this your true self? “No one” really knows, not even you. Vitangelo Moscarda is a rich man. One day his wife tells him that her nose is crooked. This statement becomes an excuse for Moscarda to see himself in the mirror again and again and pay attention to know what he looks like from the point of view of others. He also doubts his own image and moral character. Ribonucleotides have also been observed into the DNA of chloroplasts, the other organelles capable of autonomous replication in plant cells. The chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) consists of linear or circular multicopy molecules of 120–170 kb, which can replicate in different manners (reviewed in [ 164]). Even if there is still much to learn about rNMPs in the DNA of chloroplasts, it is evident that stretches of multiple rNMPs can compromise cpDNA stability. Apart from RNA tracts used for DNA replication priming, R-loops can be frequently found in these organelles. It has been found that the AtRNaseH1-like protein (RNH1C), together with DNA gyrases, plays a key role in the processing of these hybrids, maintaining chloroplast DNA integrity [ 165, 166]. In addition, also single rNMPs have been observed into the cpDNA of some species of plants, with an estimation of 12–18 rNMPs per molecule [ 151] ( Figure 2). However, the origin, location, and significance of their presence are still unknown, as well as the existence of RNase H2-like enzymes able to remove these structures. One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand is narrated by Vitangelo Moscarda, who is both one and many -- and that's his problem.

Ho sempre una paura folle a prendere in mano certe opere, penso di non essere in grado di comprenderle, di entrare nella storia e quindi mi limito a poche letture di questo genere durante l'anno. Pirandello's novel is philosophical and metaphysical, a close examination of the fundamental question of how we and others see (and delude) ourselves about ourselves (and others).

Vitangelo Moscarda discovers by way of a completely irrelevant question that his wife poses to him that everyone he knows, everyone he has ever met, has constructed a Vitangelo persona in their own imagination and that none of these personas corresponds to the image of Vitangelo that he himself has constructed and believes himself to be. Why is perspective so elusive? In a world of differing perspectives, which are the absolute truths? Or is there anything known as absolute truth? Irrespective of whether we have sympathy for such ontological convictions or not, what weakens Pirandello’s arguments is also what weakens One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand as a novel. Namely, Moscarda explains his philosophical discovery with the kind of urgency that suggests it’s a big deal, with enormous ramifications for how we lead our lives and how society functions. Unfortunately, he doesn’t show this via a narrative or plot so much as tell us via the mental soliloquies introduced above, something which implies that, on the contrary, deviations in perception don’t actually make society unworkable. And in the rare instance where Pirandello does attempt to illustrate the threats posed by divergent perceptions, he leaves omissions or speaks in the abstract, scared that giving concrete examples would undermine his point: Jedan, nijedan i sto hiljada je filozofski roman. Poslednji Pirandelov. Roman je pikantno izbrušen, a tema municiozno ispripovijedana. Knjiga se bavi sopstvom, unutrašnjim stanjem sebe, i samovanjem. Pirandelo je pokušao da duboko pronikne u sociometafizičko biće, da ispita različite aspekte svoje stvarnosti. On osjeća da to nije on. Da je izgrađen nečim nepoznatim, tuđincem u sebi, i želi da ga upozna izvan sebe. Kada se Moskarda jednom pogleda u ogledalo i sa svojom ženom uoči blagu devijaciju nosa to će zauvijek promijeniti njegovo osjećanje i sagledavanje i sebe i drugih oko sebe. 'Kriza identiteta' postaće okosnica romana. Njegov lik počinje da poprima sasvim novo obličje, a stvarnost koju će da pridoda svom novom liku biće sagledavana iz jednih, nijednih ili sto hiljada očiju. düşünen birisi, neden kendisi için değil de başkaları için ölü olduğunu hayal eder? “. Kitaptaki cümlelerden seçtiğim örnek bir cümle, insanı tedirgin bir düşünmeye sevkeden bunun gibi onlarca cümle var. İtalyanca yazılmış bir “Huzursuzluğun Kitabı” dersem abartmış olmam herhalde, her ne kadar Pessoa’yı okurken duyduğum huzursuzluğu burada duymasam da. Kitabı bitirince kendime sordum; her insanın bir “Genge”si olsa dünya neye benzerdi ?MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide. The great Pirandello's (1867-1936) 1926 novel, previously published here in 1933 in another translation, synthesizes the themes and personalities that illuminate such dramas as Six Characters in Search of an Author. Unsurprisingly, too, his wife, missing the Gengè she was in love with -- the creation of her mind she'd always been able to see Moscarda as --, leaves him. Herkes içindeki dünyayı dışarıdaymış gibi, herkese zorla kabul ettirmeye, onu kendisinin gördüğü gibi görmeye zorlamak istiyordu, ona göre, başkaları, bu dünya içinde kendisinin onları gördüğünden başka türlü var olamazdı.’