In Appunti da un'apocalisse, Mark O’Connell discusses with Maddalena Parise and Margherita Mauro on what humanity is really doing in order to avoid destruction. The conversation travels from the luxury bunkers constructed in South Dakota to New Zealand, the destination chosen by Silicone Valley tycoons as a refuge from social collapse, and to Chernobyl. It is a disturbing reflection on the Apocalypse that brings to light our negative capacity to transform it into a private obsession. The Apocalypse reveals a capitalist bent, a characteristic for which our peers are seen as “others” to be considered as competitors. It is a tragic indication of the inability of our present times to translate this threat into political and community action. The focus of the discussion is, in contrast, procreation, seen as an impulse and a prohibition - what world will our children have to inhabit? Francesco Villano reads extracts from the book.

Mark O’Connell (Kilkenny, 1979) is an Irish journalist and critic. He writes for The New York Times Magazine, Slate and The Guardian and has taught Contemporary Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. In Italy, he has published Essere una macchina (Adelphi, 2018) and Appunti da un'Apocalisse (il Saggiatore, 2021).

The event is part of the series ENDLING E ALTRE COSE PERDUTE, by lacasadargilla.
ENDLING E ALTRE COSE PERDUTE is an exploration of themes regarding the concept of “end”, viewed in its broad sense as extinction of species and society, but also of memory, time and relations. Extinction is not related exclusively to the classic idea of the extinction of species, of all those delicate and complex organisms that make up our planet, but also the “dead ends” of our lives, failed relationships and alliances, of our past and of a future that we can only catch a glimpse of. The Earth is our field of action, the only concrete place to experience life as we know it, the first field of study of the complex systems that provide the foundations of relationships, imagination, anthropologies and ecosystems that resist - barely surviving - geological, biological and human mutations.