Normal, Not [ITA+ENG]

Giarre, Italy

[ENG] This short video contribution from Pasolini’s Comizi d’amore (1965), featuring one of the greatest Italian poets, is one of the most clever arguments against what I call the “cancer of normalcy”. Normalcy is the reason why many issues become socially discriminatory. It’s normal to be white, heterosexual, male, Christian, muscular, to pee standing, and to strive to prevail in the race for survival. Such a white-supremacist construct is the reason why “abnormal” things exist and are singled out on a daily basis in today’s world.

[ITA] Questo breve contributo video, estratto da Comizi d’amore (1965) di Pier Paolo Pasolini, nel quale appare uno dei più grandi poeti italiani, è uno dei più intelligenti ragionamenti contro ciò che io chiamo “il cancro della normalità”. La normalità è la ragione per la quale molte questioni diventano socialmente discriminatorie. È normale essere bianchi, eterosessuali, maschi, cristiani, muscolosi, è normale pisciare all’impiedi e lottare per prevalere nella corsa verso la sopravvivenza. Tale costrutto da “superuomo bianco” è la ragione per cui esistono cose “anormali”, che vengono additate e censurate giornalmente.

Here’s a translation for my non-Italian followers:

Research, chapter 2: Disgust or pity?

Proved that Italians, confronted with general questions, shy away with innocent and sometimes foolish “no comment”, let’s see what happens when the question is precise, sharp, point-blank, as is the case with homosexuality.

Pasolini: Ungaretti, according to you, is there such distinction as “normality” and “abnormality” with regard to sex?

Ungaretti: Listen, each individual is made differently, I mean in their physical structure. The individual is also different from the others in their “spiritual combination”. Therefore, every individual is “abnormal” in their own way. Every individual is, in a certain sense, in contrast with nature. And this [configuration is in place] since the very beginning, since the “act of civilization”, which is an act of human abuse over Nature, an act against Nature.

Pasolini: Can I dare to ask about your personal and intimate experience about normality and its transgression?

Ungaretti: Well, personally… what are you looking for?, I… I am a man and a poet, therefore I infringe all laws writing poetry. Now I’m old and I only respect the laws of senility, which are, alas, the laws of death.