Dispatch #2: Liberation
Fungi, train robberies and the geopolitics of a rock
On this day eighty years ago, 25 April 1945, the Italian Resistance initiated its final act of heroism. Within days, they toppled what remained of the nazi-fascist forces oppressing my home country. April 25th has been henceforth known as "Liberation Day"1. So wherever you are reading this, raise your glass or non-alcoholic alternative, and SALUTE!
All the drinking got me thinking... Liberation is a word that we don't use often enough.
It is not an easy-going word - it does not inhabit the daily vocabulary. We talk of free time, of being free for this or that, of free food, of going hands-free down the bike path on a sunny afternoon, breathing in that cool breeze which tastes like salt water. The sight of a seemingly endless horizon makes us feel free. Freedom is a state of mind, body and soul.
Liberation is not a state we can find ourselves in. Rather, it is a motion. A struggle. It is the lifting of an oppressive weight, the breaking of chains. Liberation is the process through which we become free, and get to talk about the "free" things. Free time, free minds, free speech.
Liberation concerns large groups of individuals on a historical scale. That is to say, it concerns every single one of us, our past, present and future. Freedom exists because liberation happened.
Liberation also concerns a more intimate dimension of the self, the one that looks inward. I see it as one of the most transformative motions we can experience. Sometimes, we need to break out of prisons of our own making. It is probably the most difficult self-improvement tip ever: to instigate a revolution against your most intimate oppressor - you. The tricky part is, we will not know liberation until we have experienced it. Self-help books, anyone?
In the meantime, use the word Liberation. Hear it rolling off your tongue. LIB-ER-A-TION. Talk about Liberation, enjoy Liberation, remember where it comes from, especially today, but most especially every other day of the year, too.
Shiny Things
Little treasures for the curious
🏰 Astonishing Things exhibition @ Royal Academy of Art (London) - A collection of mostly ink and graphite drawings by Victor Hugo, the celebrated 19th C author most known for Les Misérables. I hadn't realised that he was also a prolific illustrator, and he paired the writing and drawing crafts in the making of his stories and settings. Hugo was also very politically active: his opinions evolved over time, but I'd like to remember him for his opposition to the death penalty (print reproductions of Ecce Lex, Hugo's drawing of a hanged man, were widely circulated in protest to the execution of an American abolitionist) and for being an early proponent of the United States of Europe.
🪨 We need to talk about Rockall - buckle up. Rockall is, shockingly, a rock. It is 25m (80ft) wide and 31m (102 ft) long at its base, it rises to a height of 17m (56 ft), and it sits in the Atlantic Ocean, 370km from the nearest inhabited place off the coast of Scotland. There is a wonderful Wikipedia2 page about this place, and I shall entice you with a few golden details:
More people have landed on the Moon than on Rockall.
It also goes by the Gaelic name Rocabarraigh - in Scottish folklore, this is a mythical rock supposed to appear three times, its last appearance being at the end of the world (we should probably keep an eye out).
Rockall was the final territorial expansion of the British Empire in 1955 - cemented in a brass plaque, with the Union Jack hoisted up by the Admiralty and everything! (apparently this was done to ensure that the Soviets wouldn't use Rockall as an outpost to spy on nuclear missiles testing).
An 84-year-old Scotsman protested that Rockall had been claimed by his father for the great family clan of the MacKays, and demanded it back - the Brits ignored him.
The brass plaque was stolen several times (I mean, you are asking for it), including by the members of one so called Dangerous Sports Club.
Greenpeace occupied the rock in 1997 for 42 days, calling it Waveland, to protest agains oil exploration, and declared it a "new Global State" offering citizenship to everyone willing to take their pledge of allegiance, with a cute rainbow flag - the Brits ignored them.
In 2013, four new species of clams, sea worms and otherwise cute little ocean critters were discovered in the sea around Rockall.
Post Brexit, fishing licences issued by the UK to EU vessels have excluded access to the 12 nautical mile zone around Rockall. The Irish Minister for Agriculture has stated that this action is costing the Irish fishing industry up to £7 million per year - the Brits not only ignored him, but also vetoed a proposed bilateral agreement to fix it.
The satirists Flanders and Swann sang a successful piece entitled "Rockall", playing on the similarity of the word to the vulgar expression 'fuck all', meaning "nothing": "The fleet set sail for Rockall, Rockall, Rockall, To free the isle of Rockall, From fear of foreign foe. We sped across the planet, To find this lump of granite, One rather startled gannet; In fact, we found Rockall."
🎲 Colt Express board game - I played this modern board game classic for the first time last week, joining a meet-up organised by the wonderful UK Democracy Network (check them out!). The game's entire gimmick is that you are rival bandits robbing a train, you go up and down the carriages to find bags of cash, all while escaping the sheriff and planning your moves in a cinematic sequence that is guaranteed to yield hilarious outcomes. Colt Express pairs well with an Ennio Morricone playlist, of course.
Field Notes
Fragments, sketches, and semi-formed thoughts - some noticed, some made
Through a friend I discovered a very magical place packed with travel books and maps. Stanfords Travel Bookshop is tucked in a cute corner of the Covent Garden area, in front of Badiani, which has to be one of the most delicious gelato places I have ever tried. Stanfords is known for its maps - historical, astral, geological… they will print out whatever your heart desires. I now want to learn about nautical charts, and I might sign up for a dinghy sailing course soon - stay tuned.
I travelled through Milan on my way back home to Cremona - I stopped for a sketch and nearly missed my train. The sunlight was perfect. Tourists abounded, and I heard so many different languages being spoken - most of them I couldn’t even recognise. I can’t remember experiencing such linguistic intensity, not even in London!
I learnt of the Hartig Net in this exhibition all about... Soil. It's a mutualistic resource sharing mechanism between fungi and plants in forest ecosystems. A lattice-like network of fungal hyphae grows between root cells without penetrating cell walls, and delivers micronutrients to the plant, while the fungi receive sugar and act as carbon sinks. You are welcome.
I will take the opportunity to remind fellow Italians abroad that you can vote in the upcoming June 8-9th referendums - please make every effort to participate, we need to make our voice count so that we will keep having a voice!
❓The Magpie’s Question: When did you feel the most liberated?
The OG Liberation day, not the nonsense that the orange man came up with - if you thought of that first, you are forgiven, but only this one time!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall No, I cannot quite remember how or why I ended up on this Wikipedia page
Excellent insights as always, my dear Magpie 💕
I feel most free when I am on a quiet train, book in hand, ready for adventure
I love this curation. Rockall is hilarious