#e. joyce

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Someone Else's Story by E. Joyce

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by E. Joyce

============= Synopsis

Naples, 1973. The local Camorra are embroiled in a struggle against Russian mobsters trying to horn in on their territory. The boss thinks Katya Goncharova knows something, and Sofia has been ordered to find out what it is. But does she want to?

============= Other Info

Someone Else's Story is a Twine (SugarCube) game submitted to the Goncharov Game Jam.

Status: Completed Genre: Unreality, Goncharov

CW: unreality, implied organised crime

============= Playthrough

First Played: Dec 2022 Last Played: 1-Sept-2023 Playtime: around 30min Rating: 4 /5 Thoughts: How good of a honeypot will you be?

============= Review

Told from the point-of-view of Sofia, Someone Else's Story takes a look at the start of the relationship between two side characters: Sofia and Katya, two women linked to big characters whose actions will drive the "story"'s plot. Spanning a conversation, you were tasked to extract information from the lovely newcomer. Will you managed without her noticing?

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

Someone Else's Story is a fairly short game mixing choices, to drive the conversation forward, and hypertext*, to provide additional contextual information to the scene or about Sofia's state of mind. Each choice provide variation in the next screen, with some even adding an option to the choice-list. The combination of all choices made throughout the game will determine how the conversation between you and Katya ends.

To get information from Katya, you must ask the right questions, in the correct manner. Though you have multiple choice available to you, from flirty to pushy, the type of questions asked may tick Katya that something is up, or may just confuse her. She will comment on the matter, before ending the conversation and leaving for the night. You do not learn, however, whether how successful you were at your task. Though, as Katya warns, when one is this expendable, does it truly matter? (kinda yes... i always want to know how well i did.)

The game raises an interesting point, hinted by its title. Though you are the main character of this game, this short story, Katya may tell you that you are just a pawn in someone else's story. You may drive the plot in this beat, but someone - your boss - is pushing you to this point in time, requesting things from you to further his story. You may down the line have a relationship with Katya (not in-game), but it will still be framed around other more important players - your struggles being a continuation of theirs.

Still, the illusion of agency still hods, even after replays. You may not be a major player, but the game makes you feel like your actions actually matter in this story, that they actually may change the course of the night. Even if, ultimately, it won't - Katya will always try to change the subject, or look at her watch, signalling the end of the conversation. Your efforts don't feel in vain.

While the game will mention a few important characters to the main lore or themes, the strongest one emanating from this entry is the concept of time. You are limited in time to find information for your boss about Goncharov before he potentially makes a move, to extract information from Katya during the party, before time inevitably cuts your effort short - when the watch strikes "twelve". But there is maybe a more ominous limitation from Katya's final remark: the time left before you will get hurt (if you continue snooping, that is).

*Another entry in the game jam, Vespertine, used a similar interactive element, though more abundantly.

[twinegardening]

Something Blue by E. Joyce [IFDB]

A young bride writes letters to her sister.

[mahoganyrust]

Early Easter post that was secretly made last year but who cares eggs are eggs and Jack is a menace

[semioticapocalypse]

Anonymous (Bertmann archive). Sylvia Beach and James Joyce. Paris, 1920

I Am Collective Memories   •    Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

[dennisboobs]

finally living up to my name

[raiiny-bay]

ok here's my contribution for pride month :-)

[purplemoonabove]

Youtube has been showing me recommendations of reaction videos on Rise of the Guardians. This may be the closest of recognition the underrated yet wonderful Dreamworks film since its release and was unfortunately thrown under the rug.

Such a great film. Deserves so much after so long

[stormingfrost]

Reviewing all Rise Of The Guardians related media

I found as much media in this franchise that I could (I know there’s some more that aren’t available anymore, like the apps) and I’m here to give my opinion on all of them. Even if I gave something a low rating, I still love and cherish it as a part of my collection! 

There’s four sections: movie tie-in books, online comics, Guardians Of Childhood, and miscellaneous pieces of media I can’t sort easily 

Movie tie-in books

The Art Of Rise Of The Guardians

        Setting - 4 stars

    Plot - 3 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

I love the concept art book so much. I find it very interesting to see how movies are made, especially animated ones. All of the different details and story elements and decisions are so cool. I had to do a double take on them calling Jack a 'hunk' that's so funny. And the art is just so gorgeous!

Guide To The Guardians

        Setting - 3 stars

        Plot - 2.5 stars

        Engagement - 4.5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 3.5 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

I love fun facts so much! Each guardian gets a section w/ information, and an activity to do. I really like it! It's my second favorite of the movie-tie in books! Has trading cards with even more fun facts! (I found high quality pictures of the cards from GoldenDragon on DeviantArt, if you wanna take a peek at them.)

Hidden Truths and Other Stories

        Setting - 3.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 4.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

It has two original stories:

Monty and Jamie discussing their experiences with the Guardians before the events of the movie

How the elves came to work for North!

Getting something from this world that I haven't seen before was so fun and exciting! My favorite of the movie tie-in books!

Hidden Truths: 

   The story of Jamie and Monty is really cute. Jamie keeps a book to keep track of the magical things that he sees. Monty shares a time when he was at a boys scout camp and got attacked by a stray dog, only to see ice appear out of nowhere.

With Friends Like These: 

    The elves are funny, and North and the yetis reaction to them is hilarious. They help North, and he decides to let them stay.

Worlds Of Wonder

        Setting - 2.5 stars

        Plot - 1.5 stars

        Engagement - 4 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 4 stars

        Overall rating - 3.5 stars

        Recommendation - 3 stars

I actually really like this. The play-set is cute and the little booklet gives some information about all the characters. It's something that I would've adored as a kid. It’s got a mixed rating bc it’s a pop-up play-set with mini paper cutouts of the characters, not a story. It’s a bit hard to rate with all the others. 

Rise Of The Guardians: Movie Novelization

        Setting - 3.5 stars

        Plot - 3 stars

        Engagement - 3.5 stars

        Characters - 4 stars 

        Style - 3 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 3.5 stars

        Recommendation - 3.5 stars

It's not as well written as I hoped it would've been, but it isn't a terrible read. Overall, I like it, but it does change, add, and exclude lines that were in the movie. Some changes I like, some I don't. It's not bad, not good.

Just meh. If you're a fan of rotg, you'll enjoy it well enough.

Jamie To The Rescue!

        Setting - 3 stars

        Plot - 3.5 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 3 stars

        Recommendation - 3 stars

It's a cute illustrated version of Jamie's view of the events of the movie. It’s a picture book for children, I can’t really enjoy this in the way it was intended to be read, because I’m not a kid. I like it, but it's not my favorite by a long shot. 

The Story Of Jack Frost

        Setting - 3 stars

        Plot - 3.5 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 3 stars

        Recommendation - 3 stars

It's another cute illustrated version of Jack's view of the events of the movie. I like it, but it's in the same category as Jamie To The Rescue! in terms of kid books that an adult is reading. 

Rise of the Guardians: A Deluxe Pop-Up Book

        Setting - 4.5 stars

        Plot - 3 stars

        Engagement - 3.5 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 2.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 3 stars

        Recommendation - 3 stars

It's fun to see the events of the movie in an interactive book! But some of the art is... just not very good? It's fine for the most part, but then Jack's eyes are suddenly in two different places and the characters look uncanny. Overall, I like it but the art leaves much to be desired.

Made In The North Pole

        Setting - 2.5 stars

        Plot - 2 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 2.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 2.5 stars

        Overall rating - 2.5 stars

        Recommendation - 2 stars

It's fun, but it's just screenshots from the movie and pngs with related text

Not a lot of effort was put into this as other books and it shows. It's cute tho, definitely a kids book meant for children. 

Rise Of The Guardians: Mix & Match

        Setting - 2 stars

        Plot - 2 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 4 stars

        Enjoyment - 2 stars

        Overall rating - 2.5 stars

        Recommendation - 2.5 stars

Not my favorite but I can recognize that I am not the target audience for this kids book. Probably my least favorite personality.  It would be fun for a kid though, the interactive element is good but overall it's not the best. It's just not for me.

Online comics

Learning To Fly

        Setting - 4.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

I like how he sees how the world works and learns from it. It shows how smart he actually is, and how much he had to learn in those 300 years. I also really like the panel where he is looking up at the birds. Very cool. Just Jack flying with a flock of birds is really cool.

Spring 1968

        Setting - 4 stars

        Plot - 4.5 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

This art is just GORGEOUS. Short and sweet, although I do wish we got to see more about the blizzard of '68. You just know Jack is laughing in the background somewhere. I seriously cannot get over how pretty this comic is. I want this art tattooed on my SOUL

Cat Nap

        Setting - 4 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

This is so adorable I can't even. Sandy's attempts to entertain the cat and the cat just not having it. Short and sweet and it's Sandy and a cat. What's not there to love?

The art is gorgeous. So cute!

Winter Spirit

        Setting - 3.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

Jack making snowmen for a group of kids. Adorable. Also, new Jack outfit besides his colonial one and modern one. I love how the snowmen glow with Jack's magic it's such a cool detail. Jack making things fun for a group of bored kids is so on brand. Very cute and fun!

Pitch Black

        Setting - 5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 5 stars

        Recommendation - 5 stars

Pitch gets offered to be a Guardian, but he refuses and takes offense to it. It's so interesting to see Pitch being more friendly to the Guardians, especially because this is the moment that started their fight. I love the different lore here. The books by William Joyce would've never had this happen. (Also ties in super well with Johane Matte's unofficial comics. I recommend reading those as well. This is her tumblr and this her deviantart) 

Guardians of Childhood

The Man In The Moon

        Setting - 4 stars

        Plot - 4 stars

        Engagement - 4 stars

        Characters - 4 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 4 stars

        Overall rating - 4 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

Very cute. The drawings are amazing. The story is obviously simple, but it's a bit awkward trying to fit Pitch and the lore in there when the story is mostly about MiM making a smile on the moon’s surface and balloons. 

The Sandman

        Setting - 4 stars

        Plot - 4 stars

        Engagement - 4 stars

        Characters - 4.5 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 4 stars

        Overall rating - 4 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

Different from the novels, but still good. Very cute, and the art is gorgeous. Golden Age/Pitch stuff was less sudden and awkward. 

Jack Frost

        Setting - 4 stars

        Plot - 4 stars

        Engagement - 4 stars

        Characters - 4 stars 

        Style - 5 stars

        Enjoyment - 4 stars

        Overall rating - 4 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

Very cute! Pretty art. Less confusion about the Pitch/Golden Age stuff, mostly because it was at the beginning as set up rather than just shoved in the middle as a long paragraph on one page. 

Nicholas St. North And The Battle Of The Nightmare King

        Setting - 4.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 4 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

Cute, whimsical. We see the very beginning of the Guardians- hints at Santa and Mother Goose. Start of the relics, the macguffins of the series (more on that later.) 

E. Aster Bunnymund And The Warrior Eggs At The Earth's Core!

        Setting - 4.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 3.5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 3.5 stars

        Overall rating - 4 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

I liked this book more than the first one. We set up Emily Jane, we get more characters, and the world is expanded on. I liked how Bunny is a dork, how Pitch's weapons absorb light, how Pitch touching Nightlight turned his hand human. I do wish there was more on Bunny's negative feelings towards Pitch, seeing as he did kill Bunny's people, rather than Bunny not really caring at all. 

Toothiana Queen Of The Tooth Fairy Armies

        Setting - 4.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 3.5 stars

        Characters - 4.5 stars 

        Style - 3 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 4 stars

        Recommendation - 4 stars

I wish we had more on Tooth's character. I love her so much. This book frustrates me because all of the other Guardians’ homes get exact locations, but Tooth's is just "Asia." Like where? Tooth's home is only implied, and it sucks. Plus, she's the only POC in this cast, and she's a bird. The book itself was okay (ignoring the orientalism). I liked some of Tooth's backstory and the build up to meeting Emily Jane. 

The Sandman And The War Of Dreams

        Setting - 4.5 stars

        Plot - 5 stars

        Engagement - 4.5 stars

        Characters - 5 stars 

        Style - 4.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 5 stars

        Overall rating - 4.5 stars

        Recommendation - 4.5 stars

I liked the full backstories and the pay off for Emily Jane, Nightlight, and the relics. It feels tied with the previous books. I don't like how rushed Sandy's parts are. Also the kiss thing is just weird. I love Emily Jane's character, wish we got more of her as Mother Nature. I liked how Sandy got blisters from the nightmare shield, it's reminiscent of his death in the movie. I liked it. Favorite book in the GOC series. 

Jack Frost The End Becomes The Beginning

        Setting - 4 stars

        Plot - 3 stars

        Engagement - 3.5 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 3 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 3.5 stars

        Recommendation - 3.5 stars

This book is a WILD ride. But definitely a better read if you aren't expecting it to be like the movie at all. The ending was good. I liked Shadowbent. It's inconsistent with the other books, it retcons a bunch of things. Like the relics. They aren’t important anymore just because. This book has unnecessary details and tangents that could be cut out (or even just shown, rather than told) because they do not add anything to the story. Joyce should stop using real historical figures in this book. Jack's staff is alive, btw. I'm still not over that. Or that Tumblr sexyman Jack Frost, Elsa's boyfriend or whatever, is besties with Winston Churchill (????????????????)

Miscellaneous pieces of media I can’t sort easily 

 Rise Of The Guardians: The Video Game (3DS version)

        Setting - 3.5 stars

        Plot - 3.5 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 2.5 stars 

        Style - 3 stars

        Enjoyment - 3.5 stars

        Overall rating - 3.5 stars

        Recommendation - 3.5 stars

I'm gonna be completely honest here: this game is a low effort cash grab. It’s a movie video game, my expectations are low and it met them. It's enjoyable if you like beating things up, but the gameplay gets repetitive quickly. I liked it well enough played it twice even but I wouldn't say it's the best. The game looks much better (better graphics, gameplay, voice acting, and multiplayer) on Wii/PS3/Xbox 360, I just don't have those consoles.

The Man in The Moon (2005 short film) 

        Setting - 3.5 stars

        Plot - 4 stars

        Engagement - 3 stars

        Characters - 3 stars 

        Style - 3.5 stars

        Enjoyment - 3 stars

        Overall rating - 3.5 stars

        Recommendation - 3.5 stars

The art style is a 3D version of William Joyce's art style (which is fine but gives me Coraline book cover vibes.) The bowler hat is apparently the boogeyman's, which is hilarious (because Joyce wrote the book that became Meet The Robinsons.) VERY early concept of this universe, used to pitch the idea to Dreamworks. It's funny how the core concept is there, but how different it is to both the movie and the books. It's alright, I do find it more interesting than entertaining, because of how much the concept changed. Can't have William Joyce without the robots. 

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

Joyce's Dublin

[theghostparty]

Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour - Redesign - 2024

If you missed part one with Roméo and Juliette, click here. Once again, long design explanation.

When designing Mercutio specifically, I turned very explicitly inwards in my belief that Mercutio is not a Montague and should not be tied to the Montagues solely. Furthermore, Mercutio has FAMILY--he's the Prince's cousin and if we want to get really semantic about it, he also has a brother, Valentine.

All this being said, in designing Mercutio, I needed to tie him to Le Prince (Escalus) and I did that mostly in dictating that these are the characters who are allowed to wear black, mostly black leather. It's a distinction that goes mostly unnoticed until its pointed out, but no other designs incorporate deep black tones. There's also this strong, olive green tone that borrows from the Montague palette and gold hardware that borrows from the Capulet palette. The Prince's family gets to straddle the line between both worlds.

I thought very texturally for the Montagues and Capulets, so in trying to give the Prince's family something distinct, I landed on this brushstroke texture to give all the leather and denim pieces a custom feeling.

In his Les Rois du Monde look (his base look--I imagine this explicitly directorial choice to have him and the Prince enter together at the top of Vérone and have Mercutio break away to join the Montagues), there is hints of this painterly texture in blue as opposed to the gold of the Prince. I wanted to feel like every alignment Mercutio has with the Montague family is an active choice on his part. I imagine him painted those swaths of blue himself. His trousers are a bleached faded, torn denim.

We see the true royal gold in Le Bal, like, I think it's just funny to think Mercutio already owned these trousers and said "Fuck it" and wore them to dress up in. His look is explicitly jester themed. It's a little bit "Earring Magic Ken Doll" coded, which delights me to no end.

This is also a good place to point out how fixated I became on closure methods in garments. In Roméo's initial design, there is a strong focus on zippers, Le Prince's jacket is held together with gold hook and eye tape at all the seams, and with Mercutio it's all about lacing.

Part of this is in reference to the explicitly gendered ideas around corsetry and playing with that in tandem with Mercutio's generally accepted queer readings. It's also an interesting metaphor to think about being bound--by duty, by honour, by friendship, by tradition--something that Mercutio is so explicitly caught in between in the Montague-Capulet feud.

His final look during Le Duel, is a take on a Jean Paul Gautier design, and is the most partisan look for Mercutio. Doffing his jacket exposes this soft satin and coutil corset top in the faintest hint of blue. A soft underbelly of allegiance that would take to stage blood SO well (and would make who ever was dressing and laundering this show absolutely hate me as a designer, but I digress).

I also think it makes him a nice mirror to Tybalt, who's overarching design element is gold chains.

Tybalt's design is wholly referential to Mark Seibert's Tybalt. Is it because I can never get that little gold and red cropped jacket out of my brain? Perhaps. But I also like to think that design for Tybalt acts as a reflection of Mercutio. The inherent softness assigned to the Capulet family's design (silks, velvets, chiffons) plays really nicely with how much machismo is implied in Tybalt's characterization.

During Vérone, we see him in a half doublet, likely of a low-pile velvet, a satin faced silk period shirt open in an absolutely impractical way, and a floral print denim trouser. I also gave him a little cuban-heeled boot. For fashion.

Tybalt is a good place to also point out that weapons are very intentionally placed in and out of scenes. Mercutio always has a dagger. Roméo leaves his behind during Aimer. Benvolio does not carry one. Tybalt has an ornately sheathed sword. There is this undercurrent of violence for these characters that is dressed up and dressed down, but persists.

In Le Bal, I really leant into the idea of chainmail for this character, in keeping with the concept of chivalry and Arthurian influences. There's a little bit of royal purple thrown in there for good measure as well as a jaw-bone mask that, at best, is foreshadowing and, at its shallowest, looks cool as hell.

During Le Duel, I wanted to strip our fighters down to exposed skin. A lot of this is to do with one of my favourite versions of this scene, Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet. What I love about the sequence is how it devolves from nobel duel to outright brawl--from a distance to something very close and personal. It's the type of step by step tension-building that I really enjoy: where there are moments (when they're just shouting words back at forth, when they're drawing their weapons, when Mercutio would doff his jacket, when Tybalt doffs his doublet) when the fight could have de-escalated. When they could have walked away. But of course, it's not the play if they do.

I just imagine seeing Mark Seibert and Bereczki Zoltán fight would be fun, ultimately.

And now onto Benvolio. I fixated on paring down his looks, and quite frankly, if it weren't for how much I enjoy his little twink clubbing outfit, I would have probably only given him one costume. My justification for this is that Benvolio gets to live. Ostensibly, he has a lifetime past this play of changing to do. I feel very strongly about the idea of Benvolio as a narrator, Benvolio as a passive presence that is forced to become active. He's not certain in the same way that Roméo and Mercutio are about love and hate. He literally spends a whole song stagnating and waffling on how the hell he's going to tell his cousin that his wife is dead. He runs around following their impulses, patching over their problems. I have a lot of feelings about Benvolio as a character.

He's really the softest of the Montague characters in textures: his doublet is torn and slashed denim, his shirt is some sort of billowy linen blend. He has a little bit of metal flair in the form of this thigh adornment, but really he's quite simple--and my comparison to Roméo and Mercutio, he's quite warm. That hint of magenta on Roméo is a full on feature on Benvolio.

I accept any and all slander about my choices for his Le bal look, but by god do I think it's silly and it brings me joy. Suit of armour under ripped green denim, a little navy ribbed singlet with a silver chainmail crop top over it? Lensless silver glasses frames? It makes no real sense, but I stand by my "We're sneaking into the Capulet's ball tonight with very short notice, here's what we can cobble together" reasoning.

[rabbithog-boyo]

This may be a bit obscure

I love these books so much and cannot wait to read much more of William Joyce’s works:DD

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Remembrance by E. Joyce

A Single Choice Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by E. Joyce CW: death of a parent

Memories are what matters... Remembrance is an emotionally charged entry, which follows the player getting ready to put their mother's ashes to rest. The trip allowing only limited amount of luggage, you can only choose one keepsake. The entry deals with the themes of death and grief with delicate words, showing the good the bad and the ugly of going through the things that mattered and the memories linked to them. Though you have a choice, there is no wrong or right options there. All are important pieces of yourself, all matter. I think I liked the box of recipe the best out of all objects. The connection between your mother and yourself felt the strongest and most emotional - I think I related to it the most. I liked the little nod of Jewish traditions hinted in there too, and the want to continue those traditions, in a way or another... It is a powerful piece that left me without many words when the game ended.

[twinegardening]

Someone Else's Story by E. Joyce [IFDB]

Naples, 1973. The local Camorra are embroiled in a struggle against Russian mobsters trying to horn in on their territory. The boss thinks Katya Goncharova knows something, and Sofia has been ordered to find out what it is. But does she want to?

[ragazzoarcano]

“La vita è come un'eco: se non ti piace quello che ti manda, devi cambiare il messaggio che invii.”

— James Joyce

[tearsofsaudade]

stranger things as memes i found on pinterest

[gregor-samsung]

“ Sono anni molto violenti a Firenze. La città è percorsa da bande di fascisti terribili, duri e fanatici, riuniti in squadracce dai nomi paurosi. Una su tutti, ‘La Disperata’, al cui soccorso arriva ogni tanto ‘La Disperatissima’, composta da squadristi di Perugia che si muovono anche fuori regione spingendosi a fare incursioni fin nelle Marche. Gentaccia pronta a usare bastone e olio di ricino senza alcuno scrupolo, teppisti, criminali come Amerigo Dumini, il capo degli squadristi che un paio di mesi dopo sequestrano e uccidono Matteotti (e che, ricorda Lussu ne La marcia su Roma, era solito presentarsi dicendo «Amerigo Dumini, nove omicidi»). Il professor Salvadori, per non mettere in pericolo la famiglia, obbedisce alla convocazione senza fare storie e va a piazza Mentana. Entra nel covo alle diciotto del primo aprile [1924] e ne esce a tarda sera, coperto di sangue e barcollante. Max, all’epoca sedicenne, che gli è andato appresso perché aveva delle lettere da impostare alla stazione e l’ha aspettato fuori, ha sentito tre brutti ceffi che ciondolano per la piazzetta dire alcune frasi inquietanti. «Occorre finirlo». «Già, ma chi l’ha comandato?» «L’ordine viene da Roma».

In quel momento Willy esce dal palazzo circondato da una dozzina di fascisti esagitati che brandiscono bastoni. Il padre, ammutolito, è coperto di sangue, e quando Max gli si fa incontro per sostenerlo e aiutarlo riceve la sua razione di botte: i picchiatori non hanno finito, la squadraccia li segue fin sul ponte Santa Trinita, vogliono buttare padre e figlio al fiume. I due si salvano solo grazie a una pattuglia di carabinieri che passa di lì per caso, e quando infine arrivano a casa a mezzanotte, malconci e umiliati, sebbene Cynthia mantenga calma e lucidità e Willy cerchi di minimizzare, lo shock è forte per tutti loro. Scrive Joyce in Portrait: “Tornarono tardi, e la scena è ancora nei miei occhi. Noi due donne (mia madre e io, mia sorella era in Svizzera), affacciate alla ringhiera del secondo piano, sulla scala a spirale da cui si vedeva l’atrio dell’entrata; e loro due che dall’atrio salivano i primi gradini, il viso rivolto in alto, verso di noi. Il viso di mio padre era irriconoscibile; sembrava allargato e appiattito, e in mezzo al sangue che gocciolava ancora sotto i capelli, si vedevano i tagli asimmetrici fatti con la punta dei pugnali: tre sulla fronte, due sulle guance, uno sul mento. Mio fratello aveva il viso tutto gonfio e un occhio che pareva una melanzana. «Non è niente, non è niente», diceva mio padre, cercando di sorridere con le labbra tumefatte. Capii in quel momento quanto ci volesse bene.” In quella sera drammatica che costituisce uno spartiacque nella storia della loro famiglia, Joyce fa tesoro dell’esempio dato dai genitori e dal fratello. Il padre che coraggiosamente cerca di sminuire la portata della violenza e il fratello che lo sostiene forniscono alla Joyce dodicenne «solidità, in quanto alle scelte da fare. Servì a pormi di fronte a ciò che è barbarie e a ciò che invece è civiltà». “

Silvia Ballestra, La Sibilla. Vita di Joyce Lussu, Laterza (collana I Robinson / Letture), 2022¹; pp. 13-14.