Going Postal

To tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit tired of being Italian. And a bit more tired of Italians being unable to read a single line in English and therefore to enjoy things like Going Postal in their unique Englishness There's a lot to be said about translation, of course: it's democratic, it allows everyone to get to know things they'd otherwise remain ignorant of and so on. I agree. I'm even enthusiastic about it, because the world is full of unlucky people who can't learn other languages for an infinity of reasons. Trouble is, I don't count stupidity among them. They tell me English-speaking people seldom speak anything else. I still can't excuse them - they don't know what they're missing *lol* - but I can understand them a bit more than, say, the average Italian. He/she has to bow his/her head to market choices made by someone else, who decides what movies to make available in his/her language, who decides what books he/she will be able to read. As this someone is often our precious Prime Minister, I consider not dabbling at least in English a capital offense to intelligence and civic sense. Not to mention the impossibility to be a part of the Internet community, thus being subject to censorship in public information, squalid propaganda exposed on a regular basis by foreign press and so on. The latter is a healthy mirror in which we can fully appreciate the extent of the international humiliation we have to suffer because of one - and a few millions who voted him...
Anyway, all this to say that I'll try to write in English every time I can, 'cause I need a little respite and there are places where it's easier to get it. Places like the Discworld. I don't mean to say it's impossible to find a good Pratchett translation in Italian - we have great translators - but it's just that some things are simply untranslatable. Pratchett English is a goldmine of puns and great wordplay, shaped by a brilliant intelligence. I'm not an envious type, but should I be it I guess I would hate Pratchett for his genial intuition of Discworld and his steady development of its complexity. More than this, among its numerous layers of possible meaning, one can easily find a simpathetic attention to humankind that makes this 30-volume gallery something close to XXI century Balzac's Comédie Humaine. And I don't think I'm overdoing it. Just read Moist von Lipwig's adventures and you'll find many precious insights on various aspects of modern world that, in that specific, ironic, sparkling form, are much more easily understandable than any sociological essay can ever hope to be. And much more fun. Ah, I was almost forgetting: you can find Going Postal as a TV movie, courtesy of Sky, starring Richard Coyle as Ankh-Morpork Postmaster Moist von Lipwig. Can you imagine Italian RAI adapting something like this? Another reason to feel deeply ashamed...