Diotallevi and Belbo, both from Piedmont, often claimed that any good Piedmontese had the ability to listen politely, look you in the eye, and say “You think so?” in a tone of such apparent sincerity that you immediately felt his profound disapproval. I was a barbarian, they used to say: such subtleties would always be lost on me.
“Barbarian?” I would protest. “I
may have been born in Milan, but my family came from Val d’Aosta.”
“Nonsense,” they said. “You can
always tell a genuine Piedmontese immediately by his skepticism.”
“I’m a skeptic.”
“No, you’re only incredulous, a doubter, and that’s different.”
(from Foucault’s
Pendulum by Umberto Eco)
8*/10. The complete review is here.
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