#lenù greco

[ffantasmi]

But at the end, I'm lucky we were together

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND STORY OF THE LOST CHILD dir. Laura Bispuri

[floweringgodhead]

It’s how Lenù can’t differentiate between the things she does for herself and the things she does for others, it’s in the ways she tries so hard to speak about/have the opinions she thinks people want her to, it’s about how she constantly strives to be better or smarter but doesn’t feel that she’s there even when people are praising her or she’s getting degrees/awards, it’s that moment where Nino who she always thought was above her reveals that he threw out the article she wrote as a child because it was better than anything he could write, it’s how she gets scared when she thinks Lila is writing a book because she assumes it’ll be better than all those thousands of pages she put out into the world and that moment she let others make her believe her first novel was bad (the novel where she included the story of her assault/rape by an older man) — it’s her self doubt, insecurity, dilettantism, dependence, pain, depression, soaring ego and then crushing self-loathing

love her sm

[theancientmar1ner]

Lenù just makes my chest hurt. I can’t explain it properly but sometimes when she’s narrating her inner thoughts it makes me cry a little even if it’s nothing too sad. just the sense of confusion, and being unable to put together all the pieces of your life and make sense of them, unable to plan ahead. it feels so murky and it’s so painfully relatable. I think part of growing up is the element of control - over pretty much everything. what you eat, what you wear, what you say, how you look, how you present yourself - and when you’re young, it’s sort of a massive destabilising part of your life yknow, it’s a real source of insecurity, feelings of inadequacy and real profound sadness, aimlessness - because no matter what you do you’re not really in control, so how can you know that you’re really yourself, that you know who you are at all?

I also think (and really hope) that as you get older, that feeling will fade. Slowly, sure, but what better time to learn who you are than when you are finally a person in your own right? Finally in control?

I hope to see her learn what SHE cares about, what she likes and what she wants from the world - not what Lila wants, or what she thinks is the right thing to go along with. I can understand her, i’m not saying at all it’s wrong or silly of her - It seems to me that wanting to feel caught up with the people you love, in the same place and on the same path is the safest and most natural thing for a teenager to want. I hope that as time goes on she will realise what she wants from life is hers to define, and hers to take.

I haven’t got so far in the book or in my own life to say this for sure - but i’m excited to see Lenù grow into herself, truly. It gives me hope.

[bpdsoundsystem]

yes lenù is an unreliable narrator with a super skewed perspective but you guys give her too little credit for her truthfulness about her more immoral qualities. she admitted she had to suppress the desire for lila to miscarry her baby that’s raw honesty.

[g-00-m]

Nobody's going to see it but I just wanted to post this drawing since it took me quite some time. It's Lila and Lenù (Raffaella Cerullo and Elena Greco) from l'amica geniale / my brilliant friend.

[mybrilliantfriend]

It was an old fear, a fear that has never left me: the fear that, in losing pieces of her life, mine lost intensity and importance.

Rhaenyra Targaryen & Alicent Hightower + My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

[tardisslayer]

Just found out after 5 years that you americans who watched My Brilliant Friend on HBO got a whole ass different scene when Lenù was washing Lila before her wedding, full titties full pussy, while RAI, the literal creator network of the show, censured everything

Italian television never stops surprising me

[eleyras]

Anyway, Will's struggles with identity, responsibility, acceptance of himself and yearn for love are resonating with me in the same deep, gut-wrenching way Elena Ferrante's female characters do, hope this help you to understand how much this book is consuming me.

[sob-dylan]

it was very smart of me to finish my book at home instead of work so i had the freedom to scream and punch things.

[houseoforange]

In the wealthier countries, a mediocrity that hides the horrors of the rest of the world has prevailed. When those horrors release a violence that reaches into our cities and our habits we're startled, we're alarmed.

Elena Greco, p. 363 (ebook) of Elena Ferrante's The Story of the Lost Child

[dylanlila]

how could you hate elena greco... surely all of your thoughts are all clean and polished and nice to look at and righteous. and the worst thing is lenù is constantly comparing her experience of the world to this supposed ideal she should live up to and it's like... you hate her for the same reasons that she hates herself for. that's great. that's really great. write down everything you've ever thought about. if you can't, you're not as brave as she is. if you can, it isn't pretty now, is it?

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

Let's recap the last few chapters of My Brilliant Friend, shall we?

Elena "Lenù" Greco, our narrator, in succession:

Tiptoes up to articulating that she's sexually attracted to her best friend Raffaella "Lila" Cerullo, then does a classic Sorawo Othersidepicnic Pivot away from it ante litteram and refocuses away from her own feelings in favor being mad about Stefano, Lila's (as far as she knows) wonderful groom-to-be, getting to come inside her (Lila).

Helps Lila dress for her wedding.

Goes to the wedding.

Makes an active choice to ignore a real class conflict happening in real time IN THE SAME ROOM AS HER in favor of listening to some guy bloviate about his trick of writing magazine articles about class conflict by regurgitating other articles and ISTAT papers.

(There's apparently serious controversy among meridionalists about whether Ferrante is sufficiently critical of her namesake protagonist's attitude on this. I'm keeping an open mind; I think how angry I am at Lenù right now is intentional on Ferrante's part, but we'll see how things evolve from here.)

Lenù's family:

Yells at her for having a boyfriend who's a mechanic (Lenù's family is of the exact same social status as her boyfriend's), reinforcing her relationship with her new best friend Internalized Classism and her other new best friend Cultural Cringe.

Stefano Carracci, Lila's bridegroom:

Buys a pair of shoes that she's spent the better part of two hundred pages making as proof of concept for expanding her family's shoe repair business into a designer shoe factory, then doesn't wear them.

Abruptly switches out the proposed wedding MC, a well-liked out-of-town relative, for the local neofascist crime lord, because he wants his money for the shoe factory.

Promises Lila that he will not invite the neofascist crime lord's son Marcello, a self-pitying date rapist who stalked Lila for months and is Lila's least favorite person on the planet, to the wedding.

Organizes the wedding reception in such a way that his (richer) side of the guest list gets served in noticeably prompter and more respectful ways than hers, instigating the argument that Lenù then chooses to ignore.

Invites Marcello to the wedding after giving him the shoes.

Fuck all of these people. Solo Lila Cerullo sempre nel mio cuore. Great book and I'll definitely be continuing the series.

[jonismitchell]

sometimes i wish i could read elena greco’s writing and then i think of lines like “it offended me because i did not have a sense of self disparate from her” and i’m like. girl. you are lenù

[saeeglopur]

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND: THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY

[purrvaire]

L'Amica Geniale / My Brilliant Friend - Lenù in season 3 finale

[iaiasmess]

"Ha fatto tanto per me negli anni di Pisa. Però tutto quell'affetto c'era solamente perché io corrispondevo al modello ideale di donna che lui immaginava vicino a sé. Io ero una ragazzina allora, e non mi accorgevo che in quel suo volermi trasformare c'era la prova che io non gli piacevo così com'ero: lui voleva che io fossi un'altra, lui desiderava una donna come immaginava di poter essere lui se fosse stato donna. E mi plasmava, per arrivare alla fidanzata ideale. Forse c'è qualcosa che non va nella volontà degli uomini di istruirci."

-L'amica geniale, Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, ep.7