Living the incredible in daily

Rimini, Friday August 24th – «What is a superhero? There is no specific definition. A man with su-perpowers maybe, a man in a costume. No, not everyone is provided with it. They are normal men who for a case or a will rise to a higher step to defend what is good. Endowed sometimes with su-perpowers, sometimes endowed with costumes, sometimes endowed with a sense of sacrifice out of the ordinary. A superhero gives the illusion of overcoming humanity. But all of them find themselves dealing with their human limitations». So says the introductory video, while, accompanied by a triumphal motif, the three speakers are greeted with great enthusiasm by the public in the Salone Intesa Sanpaolo A3. Marco Saporiti, CEO and founder DEseip srl, briefly introduce the two guests: Gabriele Dell’Otto, a cartoonist and illustrator in Rome, and Franco Nembrini, an expert and writer, retracing his biography to the meeting between the two, which took place in 2013 during a reading of Dante made by Nembrini in Rome. The meeting is particularly engaging: in addition to the interventions of the two speakers, who appear almost like a chat among friends, the attention of the public is also captured by a design by Spiderman that Dell’Otto realizes at the moment.

Saporiti opens the question of the meeting starting from a personal experience : «Until a few years ago I hated superheroes, because I thought it was a world of good people, a little ‘phenomena. But after seeing “Captain America: Civil War” I realized that there is more benevolence. The theme of doing good is dealt with in many ways, it is multifaceted, even the villains do bad things for their own good, certainly sick, but that’s what they do».

Nembrini intervenes, taking up the exhibition of Job set up in Hall A1. The writer opens about why the evil believes that «the fascination exercised by the superheroes consists in the image that postpones our desire, namely that Evil is won and that somehow we find ourselves protagonists of this struggle against Evil and lies. The question of superheroes is ancient, even goes back to classical mythology, in a continuous researched relationship, imagined between the human and the divine, because man give up to the banal. So we have learnt to call our hearts for something great, and the great can be God then we want to become God. The man in the ancient times lived with the drama and the tension of the impossibility of reading the divine, the mad flight destined to fail because it is limited by time and space. The circumstances cannot be restrained, Dante arrives at Purgatory because he accepts them living them in Christ».

Dell’Otto takes up the question opened by Saporiti: «The nuances of good that the comics postpone are a symbol of uncertainty in the face of the reality that especially the young people of these years live. Why do superheroes always have a background of melancholy? Because even with the superpowers they are not God, so they live the dissatisfaction of not being able to do more».

But who are the superheroes in everyday life? «We have no special powers, but with the awareness of God’s omnipotence, in a Christian experience, letting God use our lives, we become partakers of that omnipotent life through him. Sometimes reality seems like a set of meaningless fragments and then we feel insecure, uncertain, but, if we let God take over, a spectacular design takes shape», explains Nembrini. Dell’Otto adds: «You can do something extraordinary, that is to accept limits, difficulties in your life and reach that extraordinary point in recognizing father, brother, husband, designer, man, in being in relation with reality».

Nembrini emphasizes how this total relationship with the reality is fundamental: «We should stop trusting the thought and focus on the reality, give back the though its right role: A reflection on the reality».

A video concludes the meeting, accompanied by loud applause. «Yet the superheroes are always in struggle, always reaffirming, always resuming their march on the illuminated street, often stopping, wasting time, deflecting, lingering, coming back. Yet never go down another path».

(C.R.)