Luigi Pirandello- Eleven Short Stories

"Blog, you home?"
"Yeah, just got back from Ben and Jerry's.''
"Ay, ay, too much icecream. I'll need 2 computers to write my book reviews. Or worse, I'll have to write more to cover the... space.
''You're just envious u can't have icecream now that u're lactose intolerant."
"When did blogs get to be so smart? Anyway, wanted to share some notes on Pirandello. You interested?"
''Always keen on what goes on in writers' minds.''
"Can you believe Pirandello wrote in the time when people still got into duels? For funny concepts like Luve.''
''Or who gets the last scoop of icecream."
"Dueling for love is not something Pi wants to dwell on, but isn't it funny how serious people tended to be?"
"What's the big deal, nowadays they use knives or guns instead of swords to prove the same 'the mightest gets the girl' point. Why do you get hooked on details?"
"I guess I've just always found fencing quite amusing."
"So what did you find interesting in his craft? That's what you should focus on as a writer. Stories are more or less the same except for some centuries wearing more garments, or others getting to travel more and faster due to highly powered and polluting mechanical birds."
"Well, if you take "Little hut", for instance. I found it quite interesting how he managed to trick me into believing that the focus of this story were the two lovers who are eloping in the end..
"Ah, so romantic!"
"...because the young woman's father did not approve of their love. As he was only a..farmer.''
"Don't tell, the memories it stirs in me..."
"C'mon, Blog, don's sob...You mean Mr Squirel didn't like you as a son-in-law?!"
"Let's just get back to Pi, pls. What was the focus? If not LOVE?"
"It was a small little girl who appears at the beginning of the story. We don't know who she is, maybe it's Jeli's , the young man's sister. She used to live in his hut which is set on fire by the old angry fool when he finds out the 2 ran away. That's how the story ends, with her looking at her place burning down. Only 3 and a half pages, Blog, but that twist in the end, I'm tellin ya..That element of surprise, Blog, they don't teach u how to do it. In any creative writing book."
"I'm not impressed. What else is he cookin?"
"Guys weep in his stories".
"So now, only Italians have a heart?! How are the women?"
"Some are..let's call them pragmatic (cruel would be too harsh a word), like Sina in Citrons from Sicily. Her teenage lover gives her all his money and supports her to be a singer and then when she becomes famous and rich she forgets about their engagement. Now, it’s not like there’s anything new in that scenario, but there’s again that startling ending that gets me thinking. The poor guy comes to visit her first time after she left their village, and brings some fresh nice lemons for her especially from Sicily. At the time of his visit, she’s entertaining some high society men in the salon and doesn’t bother to come say hello to him. In the end, he loses patience and broken-heartedly, decides to leave realizing what kind of a woman she has turned into. The interesting element of surprise comes in the end. Once she finds out the guy has gone, she utters a short ‘’Ah, poor guy..”, shrugs her shoulders, admires the aromatic fruit and runs with it enthusiastically into the Salon to the courting gentlemen. Now, the question is, is she shameless, or is the guy not fighting enough, and she’s merely being pragmatic,-let’s face it, she has changed into a different person, they no longer belong to the same social class? Blog, are you snoring by any chance?
“I was, but still think she’s a bitch.”
“I think that’s the beauty of Pi, he leaves you hanging…Other female characters are merely stupid- sorry Pi- like Lydia from 'A Voice'. In a nutshell, she is blind marchese Borghi's well-bred-educated reader..."
"Ah, ou sont les hivers d'antant, when Kindle was a real woman?"
"...and she obviously falls in love with him. Lacking self confidence she keeps an important piece of info from him, i.e. Dr Falci's opinion that Borghi's blindness could be cured, fearing that if he's going to get his sight back he won't be pleased with her appearance. The operation is successful, and ta-dah, she leaves him before he gets back from the hospital, ''in order to remain, at least in his memory, a voice, which perhaps, now that he had emerged from his darkness, he would seek on many lips, in vain." Had to tell u the exact words. ''
"I agree, she was a silly case. She could have at least taken a chance. He was in love with her too, I suppose."
"He was in love with her Voice for sure. I was wondering if this scenario is outdated. Does a world in which you have 5 women fighting for a man give you the chance to blow it? Can you afford to be self conscious in this rush-rush world?"
"Well, luckily, you' re married. Let's move on."
"Gosh, so sensitive...I wish you could tell me what happened with Squirrel.."
"Any other point of interest in Pirandello's book?"
"I liked The Fly. Pi is a hell of a psychologist. To cut a story short, a guy called Giurlannu Zaru falls unexpectedly sick to death and his two older cousins, Saro and Nelli want to help him and fetch a doctor. The doctor gives out the terrible diagnosis, anthrax. Zaru realizes he got it from a fly that had bothered him a day before. The tragic part comes when Nelli, who’s described in the short story as an incurable, happy-go-lucky, charismatic optimist gets bitten himself by a fly during his visit at Zaru’s, so he also gets the disease. In his agony, Zaru is actually happy that his cousin will share his fate as they both were about to mary soon, and he couldn’t have stood the thought that his cousin had a life in front of him, whereas he was about to die. Pi punishes him, though, as the two cousins leave Zaru alone terrified that Nelli also got the disease. The story ends with the poor fly who’s cleaning her feet, ‘’as if in contentment’’.
“I’d have smacked its head, if I had been in Zaru’s shoes.”
“Why, the poor insect is only a messenger of death.”
“It’s the least one can do. Under the circumstances. It’s not good to go on the other side angry.”
“Ay, blog. How about some ice cream to cheer us up?”
“But you said..”
“I know what I said, but it seems I was able to fit in. Besides, I know you won’t overdo it. Now with the new health care bill, one has to take responsibility for one’s own…layout.''
"But u can't have ice cream."
''Ay, that's true.."
''Hey, you can have a sorbet! It's dairy-free.
"Blog, you just saved my life. A double Lemon sorbet, pls. And a double chocolate fudge with cream on top."