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arthkael · 3 months

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Elianto

“A great battle of ideas was fought, and at the end there were no victors, no losers and no ideas anymore.”

I thought to write a few posts about Italian novels I enjoy. Even though the state of our literature is abismal (the last candidates to the Strega Prize were basically all about wars, family tragedies, rediscovering bonds with dead parents and so on, except Romana Petri and her biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), there are few authors who, thank god, can write something different than sad slice-of-life stories. I’ll start with Stefano Benni.

Elianto is one of Benni’s novels which setting is a dystopian world. I always enjoyed his dystopian stories and Elianto is the first I’ve read (and my favorite, since it has a coherent ending).

In Elianto Benni tells the story of three groups of characters who, everyone in their own way, fight against a dictatorship. These characters’ destiny is tied to Elianto, a child h0sp1tal1z3d in a clinic because of a severe 1lln3ss. Unbeknownst to them, Elianto is the key to defeat the corrupted government once for all.

From the summary:

“Leave Villa Bacilla, flying away with a sexy devil,

Fly over Tristalia, and the sad Party of the Twenty Presidents,

Visit Protoplas, Hermes Trismegistus' boiling, primordial world,

Visit Poseidon, its enchanted seas and Captain Guepiere's incredible galleon,

Visit Bludus, its fifty casinos, the Levantine District, and spend a dangerous evening at the Kisaseneshi,

Visit Mnemonia, talk to its will-o'-the-wisps, stroll through its Memories Fields, while avoiding to catch the embamboly,

Visit Medium and enjoy its Days of Goodevident Charity, but try to not die of boredom,

Visit Neikos and meet the wise and handsome Siperquater, and the noble Triperott, Paladin of the Right Cause,

Visit the Cold Desert of Yamserius, fight its Cannibal Angels and stop at Rangoutan's restaurant for a snack...

And try to come back in time to answer to the Last Fated Question...if you can, there's still hope."

In the state of Tristalia (”Saditaly”) life is regulated by the Zentrum, a supercomputer that is housed in a huge skyscraper called “The Nail”. The Zentrum controls the citizens by checking their level of fear through sensors implanted into a group of volunteers (and into a group of unaware people). Media controlled by the Zentrum help the government to mantain a certain level of fear so the Tristalians can’t rebel against the absurd conditions they are kept in.

To have water, heat and electricity people have to take a survey every day, through a dedicated governative channel on their interactive tv: if their answer falls into the majority they can have all the services they need, if it doesn’t, well...that day life will be difficult for them.

There are no elections. There are 20 political parties and there’s a candidate to presidency for every one of them. When it’s time to have a new president, the 20 candidates have to kill eachother by any means, and the last one standing can act as a dictator for a year, then the cycle starts again.

Tristalia is divided into 20 counties, The counties are usually independent, but every five years their independence is challenged by the government, so every county has to choose a champion who will have to compete with a governative champion in whatever competition the government chose. Losing the competition means to be “governatized to death”.

County no. 8 has been challenged to a very difficult trivia game for children. The governative champion is Baby Esatto, a 10-year-old genius pumped with IQ enhancing drugs. The county has its champion, the main character, Elianto. He’s a genius child who suffers from a debilitating illness called “the sweet disease”. There’s no cure for it and Elianto is becoming weaker with every passing day. He is currently hospitalized at Villa Bacilla, a clinic run by good doctor Satagius. Sadly, the government wants to close Villa Bacilla and transform it into a hospital for plastic surgery. The only way to prevent it is winning the competition and retain the independence, but with Elianto out of commission the fate of County Number 8 looks grim.

One night, because of a series of cosmic incidents, a nootic map materializes on the wall of Elianto’s room. The map allows to travel to the Altereal Worlds, sort of parallel universes that can be reached only in an altered mental state. Elianto can’t leave his bed, but the map can show him the people whose intentions are more or less linked to him.

The story follows mainly three groups of people:

1. The devils: Satan sends his special agents Ebenezer, Carmilla and Brot on a mission to destroy the Zentrum. Satan thinks that the sinners who come from Tristalia are “extremely disappointing” because they completely lost “That audacity and thirst for knowledge that make transgression a noble act”. He believes that destroying the computer that controls them will make them more spirited. And the only way to destroy it is to find a Kofs, a creature that registers everything that happens in the multiverse, so to overload the Zentrum memory. The group takes its leave, using a nootic map stolen from the Heaven library to teleport to one of the Altereal worlds, where the kofs supposedly lives.

2. The suburban kids: Honeymouth, Iri and Rangio are Elianto’s friends. Honey is their leader and the stealth/hand-to-hand combat expert, Iri documents their adventures with her trusted camera, while Rangio knows “The Devil’s Twelve Chords”, a guitar technique that allows guitarists to manipulate the minds of people who hear their music. They decide to travel through the seven Altereal Worlds to find a cure for Elianto’s illness and allow him to compete against Baby Esatto at the Independence Games.

3. The Cloud Warrior and the yogis: Fuku Tiger-Eye lives in the Mountain County, home of the Cloud Warriors. To retain their independence, one of them has to win a fight against Rollo Napalm, governative wrestling champion. The only one who can beat him is the celebrated warrior Sad Tiger, who abandoned the county to move to one of the seven Altereal Worlds. So, with yogi Visamarachanda and yogi Patachamadanda, the only ones who can read the nootic map, Fuku starts his travels to find Sad Tiger.

The book also gives us perspective about Elianto’s family, the staff at Villa Bacilla and the government minions. The latter do their best to play dirty so their most prized champions (Rollo and Baby) can win the competition.

The Main Characters

Elianto Eliantemo: “Elianto is 13, and until two years ago he was the most lively child of County no. 8. Then came the dizziness, the grogginess, the cramps. ‘The Sweet Dis3@se’ or ‘The Solitary Dis3@ase’, as medical books named it”. Elianto is a kind, funny, incredibly smart boy (during a flashback we see him playing mental chess with another boy), and interested in every sort of discipline, especially astronomy (apparently his grandad encouraged him in his love for stars). His 1lln3ss paralyzed his legs and he can’t move from his bed. The author never describes him in detail, but we know his personality, his thoughts and his wishes.

Honeymouth (AKA Bouche, or Marten): “She was a girl with black hair in a bob, oriental eyes, a beautiful poppy-colored mouth and a creaky leather jacket. With her knife she could do anything, from opening a car to closing an argument. Se was as beautiful as a ray of sunlight on the suburb buildings, as a drop of blood, as a leaping cat”. Honeymouth is the leader of the suburban kids and she is a practical, non-nonsense person. She and Rangio have something going on, but she refuses to indulge in sappiness until their mission will be completed, because saving Elianto comes first. The author hints that she’s Asian.

Rangio (aka Butt-t0uch3r, or Swifty): “He was a skinny 15yo, with Viking hair, a checkered shirt and naked legs where, every now and then, you could see a scrap of denim. His tennis shoes were so worn that they looked like they had belonged to Rod Laver when he was a child”. Rangio can manipulate people’s feelings and minds with the Devil’s Twelve Chords technique, taught to him by the ghost of the legendary guitarist Snailhand Slim, but he doesn’t like to use it because it’s implied that it has ill effects on his mental h3@lth. He is a shy, easily scared boy, not very bright but ready to fight for his friends. He’s in love with Honeymouth.

Iri (AKA the Shocked): “She had turquoise hair with blood red highlights, wore a Cossak jacket, silver leggings, and her boots were made of a brilliant green material, similar to a chewed gumdrop”. Iri is the youngest of the group, and dreams to become a famous movie director. That’s why she decided to document the group’s travels, making a movie titled “The Fearless Kids”. She is as brave and determined as Honeymouth, and sometimes she makes fun of Rangio’s fear and lack of intelligence.

Carmilla Drosera Lautrelia Pinguicola: she belongs to the tenth legion of the High Demon Zepar, and she’s a member of Squad number Seven with Ebenezer and Brot. She has bright yellow eyes, small horns that quiver like cat whiskers, she flies with the grace of a hawk, she is beautiful and, like every demon, has an allure that has an unhealthy effect on creatures that don’t belong to Hell. She is the strategic mind of the group and she is always very professional during missions. She can be very sarcastic but she cares a lot about Brot and Ebenezer, who considers her dear friends, not just coworkers. She is 26 (in human years).

Ebenezer Sinferru Petronius Snoberus: “He was a tall, noble-looking devil, with antelope horns and long black mustaches. He was wrapped in his charcoal grey wings like in a cape, and his tail was tipped by a silver pommel”. Ebenezer is the oldest, the strongest and most experienced member of Squad number Seven. He is always very serious and dignified, and doesn’t like Brot’s antics and childishness. He likes reading (apparently he appreciates Emily Bronte and Majakovski) and he isn’t ashamed to cry openly when he is moved by what he reads. Being the leader, he believes it’s his responsibility to protect his two teammates (in an occasion he shields Carmilla and Brot from a swarm of poisoned arrows). He is 30 (in human years).

Brot Caolila Aldamara Daiquirius: “He was an obese giant, with a belly like a boiler, and hairy like a boar. He had buffalo horns, kind beady eyes, and two fangs that, protruding from his lower lip, touched his sunglasses (he was photophobic)”. The youngest member of the team, Brot loves eating and having fun. He literally eats his problems (he has also the habit to eat his own tail), EG when the group is harassed by a few thugs, he just tears an arm off their boss and eats it to intimidate the others. He has a nootic map tattoed on his ass, courtesy of Ebenezer. Sometimes he bickers with Ebenezer, but the two are good friends, and he looks up to Carmilla. He is 23 (in human years).

Fuku Tiger-Eye: member of the Cloud Warriors, a monastic order that has its headquarters in a Temple in the Mountain County. His master considers him the smartest and the most reliable of his disciples, that’s why he was sent on a mission to find Sad Tiger. Fuku is always calm and collected, and when he speaks he uses a poetic, sometimes exceedingly flowery language that people can find a bit boring. He has black hair that he keeps in a long braid and a tattoo of a red tiger on his right forearm. His mastery of the Seven Styles of the Cloud Kung-Fu is almost perfect, he is so strong that he can take down warriors in a full suit of armor. He’s also a master of disguise.

Yogi Visamarachanda and Yogi Patachamadanda: two yogis who lived at the Cloud Warriors temple to teach yoga to the students. Fuku remembers them as “Very nice men, and they grew those extraordinary bonsais”. When he meets them again, he discovers that they interiorized so much the spirit of the bonsais that they shrinked, becoming so small that they can fit comfortably in Fuku’s pockets. They are in perpetual conflict, and apparently their constant bickering represents the iteration of Yin and Yang. They are the only ones who can read the Temple nootic map, because the map itself is microscopic, drawn on rice paper made out of one rice grain.

Talete Fuschini: Talete is a nurse and works at Villa Bacilla. He likes his job, and thinks that alleviating other people’s suffering is the best thing a human being can do. He has extravagant theories about life, universe and all the rest. Thanks to his knowledge of the supernatural, he is the only nurse that realized that a nootic map materialized on the wall of Elianto’s room. Elianto is his favorite patient, and he does his best to distract and entertain him (since the Sweet Disease is a t3rm1n@l 1lln3ss). He can also see supernatural creatures that are invisible to the other people. When he was young he robb3d a bank.

Secondary Characters

Doctor Satagius: “Doctor Satagius is tall, shaky, bald, with a neck like a turtle and huge, cold hands that give him a lot of problems when he has to touch his patients. He has on his forehead a cross-shaped wrinkle, that becomes deeper when he has a professional doubt, and that means always.” Satagius is the director of Villa Bacilla, and keeps fighting the government to keep his clinic from becoming a SPA/center for plastic surgery. He believes Elianto can get better.

Doctor Siliconi: Satagius’ colleague, a plastic surgeon who is supportive of the government policies, he hopes that County 8 will lose the Independence Games, so he will transform Villa Bacilla in a beauty center. He complains about Satagius’ tendency to fill the clinic with t3rm1nal patients (who don’t bring money) and in his opinion all of them should be treated with Letex, a drug that reduces the recipient to a v3g3tative state.

Baby Esatto: “...a bespectacled, macrocephalic kid, with a complexion as white as margarine”. Elianto’s opponent in the Independence Games. His knowledge and his intelligence make him more mature that the other kids his age but, being 10, he throws temper tantrums when things don’t go his way. He hates losing.

Fido PassPass: journalist who works for the government and helps with the propaganda. He’s modelled on Italian journalist Emilio Fede.

Rollo Napalm: governative wrestling champion, he is scheduled to fight the champion from the Mountain County. His intelligence is not on par with his strength (apparently he isn’t capable to lace his shoes). It’s hinted he is bisexual.

Sad Tiger: designated champion of the mountain county and the strongest Cloud Warrior of all time. Apparently he abandoned the Cloud Temple because he was struck by a tragedy.

The Tango Dancer: the personification of d3@th. Only Talete, with his sensitivity for the supernatural, can see him and talk to him, even though every now and then a few people in Villa Bacilla caught a glimpse of him.

Alert:

Despite the themes, Elianto is not a book for children. It's a fun, good urban fantasy for 4dults, and there are a lot of s3xu@l innuendos, mostly in the parts of the text that recount the devils' adventures. I think it's suited for 16+ readers.

Quotes:

"What kind of country is this, where the only ones who still have hope are considered desperate?" (From the intro)

"You can't understand what an extraordinary medicine is the Letex, as known as Letheomniparesine," doctor Siliconi said in a dreamy tone […] "It's anestetic, anodine, analgesic, anti-spastic, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antipiretic, it flows in the suffering body like a comforting honey, no more pain, no more angst, no more tears, the patient relaxes, as if they're cradled by a big, benevolent hand."

"But they become like a vegetable," doctor Satagius protested, while reordering his old medicines, "No, less than a vegetable. They can't even squeak or piss sawdust in protest, like those trees they're cutting in our park." (Siliconi and Satagius)

"What kind of music is danced to during infernal sabbas? A few scholars say it's the "gringle", some kind of flamenco played by grinding teeth and wings flapping. For Reverend Orobas Paymon it's the trill of a violin. Reverend Carrol maintains that it's I am The Walrus by the beatles. For the anabaptists it's the 'cor de cul' a canon of farts executed with ignoble instruments but with a heavenly harmonic outcome. Mr Athanase Ledoux, famous case of apparent death, told he spent a few hours in hell, and he saw a sabba where they danced to Je Ne Regrette Rien played by an orchestra of harps. The demonologist Paganelli affirms they constantly play Jimi Hendrix at 78 rpm. In M.C. Noon opinion, infernal and heavenly music are both contained in the tango, because from rancor it becomes meditation and because, born in brothels, elevated itself to an unattainable purity." (intro to chapter 6)

Even though the three devils had already met [Lucipher], being in the presence of him was always thrilling. The CEO of hell was almost four meters tall, had a jovial face and a hooked nose, on his head there was an imponent rack of antlers, on the tips of which were attached post-its, cigarette butts, greeting cards, scarves, and even a Christmas ornament. His tail was hairy, purplish, tipped with a series of optionals like scissors, corkscrews, files and other tools, even a tow hook. (Chapter 7)

"Rebelling to the system? I wish they could! They think mediocre nastiness is a daring transgression, and they call 'gentless' their submission to arrogance." (Lucipher)

"Sometimes to have to eat a bit of shit if you want to reach your goal." (Sibilla, diviner eel)

"Talete Fuschini woke up from his refreshing, 5-minutes sleep, looked out of the window and saw that one of the firs he liked to decorate for Christmas wasn't there anymore. The chainsaw ate it, and now it was attacking the second one. A homeless blackbird was pecking on the windowsill. Talete, sighing, opened a can of fishing worms. He was feeding every bird with post lost tree tr@umatic d1sorder in the neighborhood." (chapter 10)

"Now every medicine goes through IV. We can't taste those horrible flavours anymore, like in the old times." (Talete)

"The Fear level is 216," Abakuk said, "and keeps increasing." "This is not good," president Previtali said, "a low level of Fear is damaging, but too much Fear makes a mess. People become nervous, they don't consume anymore, they fall s1ck, they don't want to work and become willing to listen every third rate peddler. And you can see the outcome in today survey: a 10% of 'I don't know'!" (Abakuk and Previtali)

#books #fantasy #urban fantasy #italian literature #stefano benni #reviews

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