Archipelago
- By Erri De Luca, translated by Jim Hicks
It’s common for writers to be asked about the books that influenced them, about the authors that inspired them. Usually the answer is none—the writers claim to be entirely original.
When I get this question, my answer is All of them. Every book I like has added something to my ideas, my language. I can also say I’ve been influenced by books I haven’t read. How is that possible? Because the books I’ve read were influenced in turn by the reading of other, unknown authors, who thus become part of the legacy.
Literature is a system of communicating vessels. Whoever reads a book without knowing it is also reading many others. Whoever reads Cervantes takes part in the reading he’s done.
So, why should we read so many books, if one alone is enough? Because when we have finished reading, we realize this book is no longer enough. The network of communicating vessels lies open before us.
A public library is a freely revolving door, an entryway to the survey. I’ve recently visited the library in Casal di Principe, located in the Italian province of Caserta, but that doesn’t tell the full story. Casal di Principe isn’t just a location, it’s a place making a comeback, full of civic pride. Its library was built on land confiscated from the Camorra. Such seizures of illegal gains takes land literally out from under the feet of the mob.
Where does the readers’ journey within a book take them? Straight within themselves, toward the discovery of that interior world deposited in layers inside us all, a world that comes to light through the act of reading. Yet can’t this journey be taken alone, with no need of books?
Apparently not. The process in question seems identical to that which officiates over love. The ore stored within us all contains love, but the call to free that power must come from outside. Love needs a spark to make the arc light of feeling pour forth—either another human being or the divinity in person.
Erri De Luca is a novelist, essayist, translator, poet, and one of Europe's best-known writers. His most recent novel is Il Giro dell'oca (Feltrinelli, 2018).
