I believe that it is not insignificant that the most anodyne reworkings of Pinocchio elide the complex figure of the Blue Fairy, while the more thought-provoking uses of the tale (as seen in Manganelli’s work or Spielberg’s film) highlight the female principle in a worldview that is nonetheless still fundamentally patriarchal, be it the nineteenth-century Italy of Collodi or the futuristic West of Spielberg (and of Kubrick, of course). Human creativity, whether an art, a craft, or a technology, can yield astounding results, but the power to bring into being real or simulated versions of ourselves is fraught with dangers, not the least of which is the illusion of total control over the creatures we make. The anomalous, the abject, or the sheer excess of individual desire—all historically associated with the feminine sphere—cannot be tamed or repressed merely by admonishments to conform to the Law of the Father, to be “good little boys.” So, happily, Pinocchio goes on fleeing his destiny as a “good boy like all the others” until, sadly, that destiny catches up with him. Collodi enlisted the aid of the feminine in the taming of the puppet, but it is worth remembering that, at the end of the tale, the Blue Fairy only appears in a dream to Pinocchio, as the perfect mother he would wish her to be. What or who in fact she may truly be or truly desire is known only to her.
Similarly, the mecha David is “reunited” briefly with the mother of his dreams at the end of A.I., but neither she nor he is real, and their “perfect day” of mother-son bonding is disturbingly hollow. Pinocchio’s and David’s “dreams come true,” as Disney’s Jiminy Cricket so movingly sings, but at what price? Who put these dreams of perfect goodness and filial bonding into their heads? In reality, boys’ dreams of idealized mother figures might be comforting to them, but the dreams of their fathers or father figures who are avid for total control of their sons—effectively the motherless puppets that male children so often are in societies and cultures in which the feminine symbolic is radically marginalized—can be, if realized, our worst nightmares come to life.
—REBECCA WEST
[1] Glauco Cambon, “Pinocchio and the Problem of Children’s Literature,” in The Great Excluded: Journal of MLA Seminar in Children’s Literature (1973), 50–60.
[2] Eugenio Scalfari, “Vi racconto il mio Pinocchio.” Interview with Roberto Benigni, (February 7, 2001), available at www.larepubblica.it.
[3] Nicolas J. Perella, “An Essay on Pinocchio” in Le avventure di Pinocchio/The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, trans. by Perella (University of California Press, 1986), 1–69.
[4] Mary Russo, The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess and Modernity (Routledge, 1994).
[5] Rodolfo Tommasi, Pinocchio: analisi di un burattino (Florence: Sansoni, 1992).
[6] Roger Ebert, The Great Movies (Broadway, 2002).
THIS IS A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOK
PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
www.nyrb.com
Translation copyright © 2009 by Geoffrey Brock
Introduction copyright © 2009 by Umberto Eco
Afterword copyright © 2009 by Rebecca West
All rights reserved.
Cover image: Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Pinocchio (detail), 1991; photo: Zindman/Fremont; courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Cover design: Katy Homans
The Library of Congress has cataloged the earlier printing as follows:
Collodi, Carlo, 1826–1890.
[Avventure di Pinocchio. English]
The Adventures of Pinocchio / by Carlo Collodi; introduction by Umberto Eco; translation by Geoffrey Brock.
p. cm. — (New York Review Books classics)
ISBN 978-1-59017-289-6 (alk. paper)
I. Brock, Geoffrey, 1964– II. Title.
PQ4712.L4A713 2008
853′.8—dc22
2008019734
Interior illustrations adapted from Attilio Mussino’s drawings for Le Avventure di Pinocchio, published in 1911
eISBN 978-1-59017-549-1
v1.0
For a complete list of books in the NYRB Classics series, visit www.nyrb.com or write to:
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Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio
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