Passage #17

About Passages ||| About the Artist ||| Technical Notes

Chapter 9

 

The assassin's 50 magnum came out obliquely, between the tracks, smelling the air, as if the barrel could recognize the Chief's smell, and silently plowed the cool air in the crag. The Chief did not see it. The gun did not see him.

The Chief was going down with his head low and his hands high. The gun looked straight ahead, according to the brain's logic. The Chief was worried about his life. The gun too was worried about the Chief's life. The Chief decided to go down quicker. The gun to search for a little longer.

The fact is, the gun was thinking, that we are envious of God. Even though not by much, the little he takes from us (the little we have left) we couldn't care less about.

And God knows this very well: He punishes the flesh by abstinence, He punishes it by intemperance. Because the devil resides in man's loins, and is always looking for a shelter in which to hide. God's best liked angel opened a slice of universe in order to create evil on earth.

The war of the sexes - a demiurge says - is a anthropophagous event anyway. God did not open a pound of that flesh to create evil, but only to pursue goodness. Unfortunately, the pleasure of the flesh arouses that very desire generated by the devil.

Unfortunately, says God, without that desire, but above all without that pleasure, there could not be procreation. In this world, everyone knows, there is not a moment of enjoyment without a religious catch resisting the most stubborn irresponsibility. The gun smirked, training the molded palladium sight.

Capitolo 9

 

La magnum calibro 50 dell'assassino spuntò di traverso, tra un binario e l'altro, annusando l'aria, quasi che il Capo avesse un odore riconoscibile alla canna, e vangò, senza rumore, l'aria fresca del dirupo. Il Capo non la vide. La canna non vide lui.

Il Capo scendeva a testa in basso e a mani levate. La canna guardava diritto, secondo la logica del cervello. Il Capo si preoccupava per la propria vita. Anche la canna si preoccupava della vita del Capo. Il Capo decise di scendere più in fretta. La canna di cercare più a lungo.

Il fatto è che siamo gelosi di Dio, pensava la canna. Anche se di poco, di quel poco che ci prende (che ci resta) non ce ne freghiamo affatto.

E Dio lo sa con chiarezza: castiga la carne con l'astinenza, la castiga con l'intemperanza. Perché il demonio risiede sui lombi dell'uomo, e cerca sempre un rifugio nel quale rintanarsi. L'angelo prediletto del Signore aprì uno spicchio di mondo per generare il male sulla terra.

La battaglia dei sessi - dice un demiurgo - è comunque un fatto antropofagico. Non fu Dio ad aprire una libbra di quella carne per generare il male, ma solo per perseguire il bene. Purtroppo, il piacere della carne suscita il desiderio perpetrato dal demonio.

Purtroppo, dice Dio, senza quel desiderio, ma soprattutto senza quel piacere, non vi sarebbe procreazione. A questo mondo, si sa, non c'è momento che ci facciano godere, senza che un appiglio divino non resista alla più testarda incoscienza. La canna sogghignò, aggiustando il mirino in palladium sagomato.

 
About the PASSAGES project

PASSAGES is an international on-line art project conceived by Manuela Corti, of Bologna Italy, with the participation of a number of artists around the world.

Passages from an Italian novel are selected, to be translated into each artists' own language and interpreted in the form of a web page. The images will be on exposition and published in the form of a book and CD-rom.


This Passage was designed by Bruce Powell of Tiburon, California

Information about the Artist

Your Feedback will be very much appreciated!

Send your comments to me at : brucepowell@usa.net


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