This story by Dino Buzzati is a satire of false piety. The fist of God appears in the sky, signaling the end of the world. Two friars, happy to have been proven right, laugh and make fun of the panicking crowds. The rich buy up the services of most available confessors, while charlatans pretending to be priests do house-calls to hear confessions from those who can afford it. A young priest cornered by a crowd mechanically takes confession after confession, before damning them all to hell for cheating him of his own salvation. Themes include piety, Armageddon, fear, greed, hypocrisy. More…
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The Time Machine
In this story by Dino Buzzati, a scientist builds a luxurious walled city in which a machine slows down time. Animals and plants grow and age half as quickly as those outside, allowing occupants to live for two centuries. Residency is expensive and, once inside, it is impossible to leave as the effects of normal time will be fatal. Life in the city proves not to be the utopia residents expected, and ends in disaster when something happens to the machine. Themes include self-preservation, alienation, monotony, the dangers of relying on technology and toying with the basic laws of nature. More…
Seven Floors
Dino Buzzati’s Seven Floors is an allegory of both the stages of life, and the futility of trying to fight bureaucracy. A slightly ill patient enters a ward on the top floor of a seven-story sanatorium. He learns that more seriously ill patients are progressively moved to lower floors, with the dying relegated to the dreaded first floor. Once caught up in the system, and against his perception of the severity of his illness, he makes the slow, inexorable progression to the bottom. Themes include the inevitability of ageing and death, institutional inflexibility, the unpredictability of life, fear. More…
The Falling Girl
The meaning of this thought-provoking story by Dino Buzzati is reflected in both the building and the girl. The skyscraper is a metaphor for society: the idle rich party at the “top”, as the working class scurry about at the bottom. The story represents an attractive young woman’s journey from the glamor and excitement of the “high life” to the loneliness, frailty and fears of old age. In the sad conclusion, she has no one to mourn her (hear the “thud”) when she hits the ground. Themes include social class, consumerism, envy, lack of fulfilment, ageing, alienation and loneliness. More…