This is an audio interview with Tim Parks on The New York Review of Books about the new translation of Carlo Collodi’s ‘Pinocchio‘ by English poet Geoffrey Brock. Parks connects Collodi’s original work with the unification of Italy and his views on the place of education in society. The interview has a lot of information about Collodi and the incredible novel about the naughty little wooden boy. If you’ve seen the Disney movie, trust me, you have not seen anything close to Pinocchio. That movie, though a brilliant demonstration of animation technique, is simply dreadful and I have never watched it without falling asleep well before the halfway point. Animators love to talk about the genius of Disney and its film of Pinocchio, but they are not being honest. It is a giant crashing bore. Read the wonderful book which is full of danger and is actually a very dark and disturbing tale, as most good children’s stories should be. At the end of the podcast, Tim Parks reads a selection from the new translation which sounds quite good.
Get the new version of Pinocchio here.
The image is by Enrico Mazzanti who was the original illustrator of Pinocchio.
Wow it is totally different. Jimminy Cricket doesn’t last long in the book, does he.