Naomi Mitchison ha ottantotto anni quando viene pubblicato questo racconto, e continuerà a scrivere praticamente fino alla morte. Nata in una antica famiglia dell’aristocrazia scozzese (gli Haldane) che concentra le sue figure di rilievo proprio nello scorso secolo, lungo tutto l’arco della sua vita sarà impegnata sul fronte delle tematiche femministe. E’ stata una scrittrice assai prolifica, dedicandosi alla saggistica, alla poesia, al romanzo storico e di costume, alla narrativa per ragazzi e a quella fantastica. Nel campo strettamente fantascientifico has produced a handful of novels and short stories, among them Memoirs of a spacewoman (1962), first published in Italy as Diary of an astronaut and then Memoirs of an astronaut, a space-opera where the emphasis is all about knowledge, its size and relational and biological problems, rendered in a clear perspective and the absence of the feminine element adventure.
Words is a short story that despite the location, so that the original Italian, in anthologies of women's and feminist science fiction into reality non è così caratterizzato in tal senso. Certo, protagonista è una figura di scienziata, la dottoressa Toni, delineata con cura dall’autrice, ma questo è tutto. Il tema centrale del racconto verte su questioni percettive e cognitive che si possono allargare, a ben vedere, a tutta una serie di considerazioni sulla fantascienza e più in generale la letteratura.
La protagonista è una neurofisiologa che va compiendo studi appunto sulle percezioni sensoriali. Il suo lavoro sperimentale va oltre la biologia e fisiologia dei sensi comunemente intesi (tatto, vista ecc.) e la conduce dunque a sviluppare metodologie atte a risvegliare, nelle sedi deputate del cervello, le strutture cellulari preposte a sensi che nell’uomo non sono attivi.
Con lo sperimentare in prima persona gli effetti cognitivi di queste nuove percezioni, la donna si troverà ad affrontare la questione decisiva dell’impossibilità di descrivere tali effetti, di rendere con gli strumenti del linguaggio le proprie reazioni. E’ il cuore del racconto. Dante, che in realtà ben possedeva gli strumenti linguistici per esprimere l’ineffabile, nel Paradiso insiste sull’ineffabilità del divino. Però il divino, in quanto creazione dell’uomo, rientra nella sphere of human experience. In fact, the ineffability in the case of Dante is a measure of hyperbolic and symbolic dell'inattingibilità by the divine dimension of the human intellect.
If we ask instead the perspective of sensory perception unknown to man, so completely outside of its assets experiential, we see that the ineffability becomes technical problem and, consequently, philosophical . What does Naomi Mitchison, is to use the forms of science fiction to prime considerations in the first instance of literature in general, and that subsequently can be identified as a specific science fiction.
Words are the tools of the writer. The man is faber also, perhaps above all, ideas. The definition is because the central idea can be communicated, transmitted to others, and thus shared. Why become a common heritage and therefore the instrument. The word has become the defining symbol of the idea and material used by man. At the word, as the definition of the idea behind the man comes through experience. It 's the old question: How can I explain to those who are color blind? Dr. Toni is precisely in this condition. You can also take as a metaphor for that particular faber which is the science fiction writer, who must find the words to describe worlds, ideas, facts that do not exist. Which are, at best, speculative. The young journalist who goes to interview the scientist will be found precisely in the position of the writer of science fiction. The fact the woman take charge (because it is "good with words") to find ways to translate into a meaningful literary form his notes on experiences in the course of his experiments that allow try the new perceptions. There is like the proposition of the schematic division between scientific and literary culture. But even more, I think there is a proposition of the primordial task of interpretation, almost magical word. The word is a key. And the writer is one who opens doors for us.
Science fiction author goes further to create the keys for doors that do not exist, which must show consistency through his work as a blacksmith.
the young journalist will be able to get to grips with the problem of which he was invested? We'll never know. We know that there has dedicata tutta sé stessa, e che senza dubbio ha raggiunto qualche tipo di risultato. Le manca però l’esperienza diretta. Non aliena da pericoli, perché ci si deve sottoporre a stimolazioni nervose in gran parte ancora ignote nei loro effetti collaterali (di assuefazione, per dire). In un incontro finale con la dottoressa ella discuterà proprio di questi aspetti. La donna più anziana appare provata, ma serena. Di certo “vede” la realtà in modo nuovo, e non potrebbe essere diversamente, e il suo cruccio resta l’impossibilità di trasmettere agli altri le sue percezioni. Il blocco dello scrittore deve essere una brutta bestia per chi è del mestiere ;-).
Beyond the bare basic idea of \u200b\u200bthe possible interpretations metaphoric, the narrative all the more striking for the figure of the scientist, the author describes almost allusions to and subtractions that telling you something or let the character to reveal himself in his gestures and actions. Short hints, almost nuance that fielding skills and sophistication to create a psychology and credible figure of a woman alive, passionate and mysterious. It is no coincidence that a light illuminates the mystery of his death. Not in the proceedings: that the risks involved in experiments performed, of which he was warned and that all those who loved her entreat you to take due account is made, and the scientist dies during one of them. The mystery is more subtle, in the words of the anonymous reporter who had learned to love that close up the story: Only his lips were still attitudes with a smile, as if perhaps he had finally found the words to say. do not know if this is so, but it's nice to think so: life, apparently, is dangerous, but only by living we learn and grow.
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