Al contrario, L'uomo che era morto, ci viene introdotto come una figura solitaria, un uomo ripreso dalla morte. Dopo poche pagine scopriamo essere Gesú risorto, un Gesù ancora spaventato dal ricordo del dolore, molto umano, quasi diffidente verso il genere umano per quello che gli ha fatto. L'incontro con una sacerdotessa di Iside sarà il punto di svolta. Ella infatti, gli si donerà senza chiedere nulla in cambio, e il contatto sarà una completa risurrezione, del corpo e dello spirito, totale. Egli non sarà più solo, perché qualcosa di lui risiederà sempre in lei e in lui qualcosa di lei.
Due racconti complementari, come ho detto prima, quasi a specchio. Da leggere rigorosamente uno dopo l'altro, per realizzare quasi fisicamente il movimento a U della narrazione, l'effetto della solitudine, che sia cercata o fuggita, sui protagonisti.
David Herbert Lawrence
L'uomo che amava le isole e L' uomo che era morto
Newton Compton Editori
Lire 1000
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I wonder how it is possible that Lawrence is remembered just because "The Lady Chatterley's Lover", and less because these short novels. These two, for example, are beautiful. Properly paired up in the same volume, they would be to considerate one as the mirror of the other one. Communal and central subject, the loneliness. In the first case, the main character is Mr Cathcart, well-off man, enough to live and sustain in his own island a few of servants. He decided to inhabit far from the world, where he sometimes comes back for business, looking for the desired loneliness. A sexual relationship with an islander brings him to distance himself from that place because this umwanted contact. Island after island, he'll be totally alone, far from everyone.
On the contrary, The Man Who Died, is introduced as a solitary figure, a man taken from death. After a few pages we discover to be resurrected Jesus, a Jesus still frightened by the memory of pain, very human, almost diffident towards the human race for what they have done. The meeting with a priestess of Isis will be the turning point. She, in fact, will give herself to him without asking anything in return, and the contact will be a complete resurrection, body and spirit, total. He will not be alone anymore, because something his always reside in her and in him something hers.
Two complementary narratives, as I said before, almost mirror. Read strictly one after the other, to achieve almost physically the U-move of the narrative, the effect of solitude, whether sought or fled, on the main characters.
David Herbert Lawrence
The Man Who Loved Islands and The Man Who Died
