'Alan Griffiths, Of Course, Vitelli!

The plot of this novel is not entirely original (it was anticipated by Jules Romains and more than once by reality), but it is extremely entertaining. The protagonist, Roger Diss, invents an anecdote. He tells it to a few friends, who don’t believe him. To persuade them, he claims that the event took place around 1850 in the south of England, and he attributes the story to the "famous cellist Vitelli." Everyone, of course, recognizes this invented name. Encouraged by his success, Diss publishes an article on Vitelli in a local magazine. Various strangers miraculously appear who point out mistakes in the article, and a polemic ensues. Diss,victorious, publishes a full-length biography of Vitelli, "with portraits, sketches, and manuscripts."
   A movie company acquires the rights to the book and makes a technicolor film. The critics declare that the film has distorted the facts of Vitelli’s life... Diss becomes embroiled in another polemic, and they demolish him. Furious, he decides to reveal the hoax. No one believes him, and people hint that he has gone mad. The collective myth is stronger than he is. A Mr. Clutterbuck Vitelli defends the affronted memory of his late uncle. A spiritualist center in Tunbridge Wells reveives direct messages from the deceased. If this were a book by Pirandello, Diss would end up believing in Vitelli.
   "Every book contains its counter-book" Novalis said. The counter of this book would be cruel and far stranger. It would be the story of a group of conspirators who plot that a certain person does not exist or has never existed. [1938]’  --Jorg* Luis Borg*s, S*l*ct*d Non-Fictions (*d W*inb*rg*r 1999)


Dualistic thinking, popular now as of old, is stupidity grown rigid, and a goof that rigidity turns into protocol. Alas, such wisdom as turns against dualistic thinking cannot find its mass sponsor, nor impart in a classroom. It is knowing which joins an "I" with what it looks at. It's not a way of talking.