This article is published in number 16 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until April 18, 2023
Strokes, like children, are better to have when young…”. Both are phrases I’ve heard. A colleague told me about children… when I was 29… At 34 the desire was still absent, but by now for that colleague of mine I could even stop hoping: I was old, and children are better to have when young.
For a stroke, on the other hand, at 34 you are very young … It is not one of the fastest anti-aging treatments, it must be said: it requires you to stay in the hospital for almost two months, stop making one side of your body work, have no form of independence or privacy … The filler is certainly faster, but at least when people find out that you have had a stroke they don’t think you are vain, but they will still say: “You are so young!”».
Poor by Chiara Galeazzi begins like this and it made me laugh a lot. And reflect on a theme that I often think about, given that in recent years the dam of fragility has broken, and many authors have begun to write inspired by our pains: deaths, illnesses, divorces.
There are two schools of thought on this: one led by the brilliant and fierce Guia Soncini who thinks we are a generation of whiners, and the other who deems it useful to share pain or, as it should be said, bad luck. I’ve always been in the middle, I think: I have abundantly plundered bad luck as a source of inspiration and above all placed in the front row to look closely at strong experiences and use them narratively.
The fact is, and Galeazzi’s hilarious book about his stroke made it clear to me, it all depends on the style, like many things. She, a comedian, manages perfectly to keep her voice telling a dramatic and intimate fact like a cerebral hemorrhage that occurs while you’re 34 watching videos on YouTube.
Others, like Emmanuel Carrère or Annie Ernaux or Olivia Laing or Édouard Louis have such a high style and such a controlled writing that they can start from themselves without the slightest risk of smudging. You have to be very good to do it. It’s always a matter of style.
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Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
