The writer was a guest of Fabio Fazio on “Che tempo che fa” on the Nove. He talked about his illness and the long period he had to spend in hospital. “How are you?” the host asked him. He replied: “Depends where you look at it, let’s say. In the end I think the most honest answer is ‘fine’. I am fine. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be here.” In January 2022 he announced that he was suffering from leukemia
Alessandro Baricco opened up about his illness, leukemia (which he announced he suffered from in January 2022).
The writer was a guest of Fabio Fazio at What’s the weather like on the Nine, in yesterday’s episode, Sunday 29 January (you can watch the video of Fazio’s complete interview with Alessandro Baricco at the bottom of this article).
He spoke about his illness and the long period he spent in hospital. “How are you?” the host asked him. He replied: “Depends where you look at it, let’s say. In the end I think the most honest answer is ‘fine’. I am fine. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be here.”
He was wearing a black hat, a checked scarf and a pair of gloves with bare fingers.
“I’m someone who spent the summer in a hospital, at San Raffele, and you leave beautiful pieces of yourself behind,” he continued in front of Fazio. “When you go out, you have pieces to recover, you’re uphill. I had to brush my teeth and I was so weak that I couldn’t do it except just move my head, and I wondered if I would ever get out of this. There I wondered where life takes you,” he added.
“I’m doing great now. It’s a long journey that I haven’t finished yet, there’s a relentless slowness”, these are Baricco’s words.
During the story he never abandoned his smile and serenity
The warning that Alessandro Baricco addresses to the public is not to obsess over the illnesses of VIPs. And, also, not to think that pain is normal.
Talking about what he has gone through in recent months due to his illness, the writer has never abandoned either his smile or an evident feeling of serenity.
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Fabio Fazio asked him if by any chance he felt betrayed by his body, and if this possible change has somehow modified his relationship with his body.
“I have worked with my body all my life. Between body and mind, it is precisely the body that has usually arrived at things before me”, replied Baricco, dispelling that doubt – or, rather, that stereotype – according to which an intellectual must be more interested in the mind and the body .
“I have never experienced it as a burden, on the contrary, it is the very essence of my journey. I’ll tell you, I didn’t get angry when I was sick,” continued Alessandro Baricco.
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His focus on VIP illnesses
Alessandro Baricco declared: “I shared some curves of this illness journey on social media and something happened that I never expected”, this is his premise.
“It’s full of people who love me and I wasn’t aware of this. It was a strong emotion, also because I know that in the past I have been badly tolerated, for my presumption, arrogance and for my success,” she continues.
The writer reasoned about the media’s morbid interest in celebrity illnesses, clearly stating that he wants to escape that merry-go-round. “Mine was a practical choice: I wanted to quickly communicate to as many people as possible that I was ill, I didn’t want to fuel fear”.
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He explains that he didn’t want to fuel either the VIPs’ obsession with illnesses or fear
The writer declared yesterday during his guest appearance at What’s the weather like: “I repeat: I would not like to have fueled the obsession with VIPs’ illnesses (I subscribe to this category). My intent was different.”
In addition to not wanting to fuel the obsession with the illnesses of famous people, what is important to him is also not to fuel fear in any way.
“I would like to be clear: my disease is affected by one in 100 thousand, and serious disease is an anomaly, I don’t want it to be experienced as a common experience for human beings. Don’t worry,” explains Alessandro Baricco.
Below you can watch the complete interview that Fabio Fazio did last night with Alessandro Baricco a What’s the weather like.