JEANETTE WINTERSON: non solo un'icona gay...

E’ stato un anno difficile e purtroppo il piccolo Ari ci ha lasciati… Ora, però, sono pronta a ricominciare la mia sfida…

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Jeanette Winterson è una donna interessante: tanto forte e, al tempo stesso, tanto fragile. Ha superato un’infanzia e un’adolescenza in condizioni a dir poco difficili, è riuscita ad approdare ad Oxford, infrangendo la barriera di divisione tra le classi sociali ed ha avuto il coraggio di cominciare a scrivere di tutto ciò come se non fosse nemmeno capitato a lei. Eppure, l’invasione dei media nella sua vita privata e la rottura con una partner importante l’hanno distrutta… proprio quando pensavi che era capace di affrontare qualsiasi cosa.  Alla fine, comunque, è risorta dalla sue ceneri ed ha sviluppato un nuovo atteggiamento nei confronti della critica e anche dei giornalisti: dalle interviste che ho guardato emerge una persona sicura e aperta, disponibile al dialogo e al confronto, onesta nel suo rapporto con la critica. Dei critici, infatti, dice: “You shouldn’t take any notice at all of anybody who has not written a significant work themselves”. Ho scoperto di avere anche qualcosa in comune con lei: l’amore per le librerie e per la lingua. In un’intervista si esprime a proposito del progressivo impoverimento del linguaggio: “If we don’t have the words, the complexity of our thoughts will shrink to the words that we do have and that will make people stupider than they need to be and more superficial than they need to be”. Quanto è vero!

JEANETTE WINTERSON: NOT JUST A GAY ICON...
It has been a very tough year for me and, unfortunately, little Ari left us at Easter… By now, I’m ready to take up my challenge again…

Jeanette Winterson is definitely an interesting woman: so strong and so fragile at the same time. She survived a tough childhood and managed to get to Oxford, breaking class barriers. Above all, she had the courage to write about it all as if it hadn’t happened to her. But, after that, the literal invasion of her privacy from the media and the break with an important partner destroyed her… just when you thought she could face anything. However, in the end she managed to rise from her own ashes and devolped a new attitude towards critics and journalists: I’ve watched her recent interviews and I got the impression of a self-confident, accessible person, who’s also honest about her view of criticism. In fact she said: “You shouldn’t take any notice at all of anybody who has not written a significant work themselves”. I’ve also found out to have something in common with her: my love for libraries and for language. There’s an interview where she talks about the progressive impoverishment of the language: “If we don’t have the words, the complexity of our thoughts will shrink to the words that we do have and that will make people stupider than they need to be and more superficial than they need to be”. How true…