Why right-wing Italians love hobbits

From: The Economist IE Sep-15-2024 11:19:am

Read in browser

February 18th 2024

The Extraordinary Story

Long reads and life from 1843 magazine, delivered every Sunday

NATIONALISM

Why right-wing Italians love hobbits

Their obsession with fantasy literature has a long and curious history

The National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome houses choice examples of 19th- and 20th-century Italian art. But the books currently on sale in its vestibule have nothing to do with futurism or Arte Povera. They are by – or about – J.R.R. Tolkien, a British writer of fantasy. “One of the greatest authors of the last century,” murmured Carlo Pesce, a Venetian business executive, as he fingered an edition of “The Silmarillion”, a dense narrative even die-hard fans tend to skip.

The books were put on sale as part of a show called “Tolkien: Man, Professor, Author”. Italy’s right-wing government had sponsored the exhibition as a component of its cultural strategy, which aims to dismantle the long-standing ascendancy of Italy’s mainly left-leaning intellectuals and artists. At a packed news conference held to announce the exhibition, the culture minister extolled Tolkien as “a staunch Catholic who exalted the value of tradition and of the community to which one belongs…a true conservative.” Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, took time out from her official duties to open the show, and the inauguration was attended by a bevy of ministers from her party, the Brothers of Italy (FdI). It was given extensive, admiring coverage on the prime-time news bulletin of the largest state-owned TV channel.

Attendance was sparse when I visited on a chilly weekday afternoon in January, yet the woman at the ticket office said the turnout had been “pretty good”. Still, the exhibition hardly lived up to the razzmatazz with which it was unveiled. It consisted of film clips and photos of Tolkien, illustrations for his books in which heroes slay dragons and grapple with orcs and editions of his works in a bewildering assortment of languages. There were also costumes and posters from Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of “The Lord of the Rings”, and a clip in which the wizard Gandalf battles the ghastly Balrog. There was even a gaudily decorated Tolkien-themed pinball machine. Meloni pronounced it all “very beautiful”.

Read the full article →

Your free trial to The Economist

Get digital access to independent global analysis

Start trial

Also from 1843 magazine

PHARMACEUTICALS

The town that Ozempic and Wegovy built

Novo Nordisk’s drug is helping millions to lose weight. It is also changing Denmark

From the archive

RUSSIA

The reckless heroism of Alexei Navalny

Russia’s leading opposition figure endured ignominy, imprisonment and poisoning over the course of his political career

FINANCE

After FTX: the five stages of crypto grief

In Miami, the music keeps playing, but the party is over

Also from The Economist

Subscriber only

Stay informed with our Europe newsletter. Each week our correspondents will keep you in the loop on the continent’s biggest stories, from the front lines in Ukraine to the corridors of power in Brussels.

We’d like to hear from you

Share your feedback via the email address below.

Email [email protected]

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

This email has been sent to: krazypromo. If you'd like to update your details please click here. Replies to this email will not reach us. If you don't want to receive these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here.

Join the conversation