In “For a philosophy of responsible action”, the Russian critic Michail Bakhtin highlighted a fundamental concept of his theoretical speculation: exotopia, also known as “transgredience”, that is, that movement out of oneself that the author makes when he has to portray the hero of his novel. To be outside, to place oneself in another place. Reading Bobi, together with Memè Scianca the literary testament of Roberto Calasso, we witness a similar “extra localization”.
The late president of Adelphi – who passed away in Milan on 28 July last – recalls his friendship with Roberto Bazlen, creator of the publishing house, re-establishing his tastes, his life devoted to books, his reticence towards writing, his almost always oracular tone :
Adelphi
“Bazlen’s accomplished work was Adelphi. Definable with a phrase he said to me the day he told me about it – and Adelphi did not yet have his name: “We will only make the books we like very much” ».
Roberto Bazlen (1902-1965), called Bobi in fact, was a Trieste intellectual who did not publish anything in life (the Writings, edited by Calasso himself, came out in 1984), but was a precious consultant for publishing houses such as Einaudi, Bompiani, Astrolabe. He was very well informed, particularly in Central Europe and, thanks to his mediation, authors of the caliber of Freud, Kafka, Musil and many others arrived in Italy.
In Bobi Calasso he not only tries to remember an important figure in his life, a companion and a teacher, but – returning to the days of his earliest acquaintance – he tries to immerse himself in Bazlen’s being, in reliving it through the act of writing. . Here then are moments of surprising everyday life: «Bobi was on the first floor of via Margutta 7. A room from a landlord, plus another room, where I have never set foot; maybe it was a piece of a garbage room. The phone was in the hall. Bobi’s room gave the impression of perfect order, without being particularly tidy. On the left a bed, where the most important functions took place: reading, writing, sleeping. A few piles of books, some stable, some passing through. The difference was immediately recognized. A tiny coffee table in the middle. In one corner, a coffee stove. Bobi was wearing his dark brown Norwegian sweater, a shade softened by time, which I liked immediately ».