It’s important, nay a prerequisite, to be briefed about current state of affairs . This novel written in 1984 by Italian author Andrea de Carlo is prophetic in its prescience about dictatorships, with a twist. Satire has always been a harpoon in the side of Italian governments that carry on regardless despite the revolving changes at the helm. He writes a surreal story that’s more a lampoon shining a humorous “what-if” at power and media surfaces. The protagonist, Macno, is a young, charismatic ‘benign’ dictator of a futuristic country, who communicates through mass media. This is where the future, sure looks like now. His novel is descriptive almost cinematic in style, exploring modern life in an alternate reality. Our lead, a former rock star helms an unnamed country resembling Italy in the 1980s, deploying television manipulation and mass media, exploiting the fragility of the political regime.
The titular character rules the country by hiring journalists, as well as a retinue of other professionals including writers and scientists, keeping them at his court- until he is murdered by his lieutenant who takes his place. Unlike traditional regimes based on violence, Macno’s rule is a “soft dictatorship”, maintaining power through a sophisticated employment of television and mass communication to manipulate public opinion and create a cult of personality. As he approaches his third anniversary in power he faces a personal and political crisis. His regime’s atmosphere feel like its “last days”. Into this chaos, the author inserts Liza, a German TV journalist who along with her cameraman manage break into his private estate for an interview. Macno invites them to join his pseudo-Renaissance court, consisting of followers like a media expert, a botanist and a pianist. Liza eventually falls under macno’s spell and their professional encounter turns into a complicated romantic entanglement.
The story is often told as though through a lens that mimics a video camera, focusing on sensuous surfaces- clothes, architecture and immediate sensory details- rather than deep internal monologues. The author explores the fragility of a reality constructed entirely by media and the difficulty of finding “moments of truths” within a carefully managed public image. Confined to the present tense, the story emphasises style and elegance. The sentences are short and dialogue sparse, yet the book’s succeeds as a literary treatment of the role of television in politics and in the creation of an eerily superficial modern society. Its a focussed study on the melancholy and eventual exhaustion of a media-built regime so prophetic in construct to the way Trump’s administration is characterised by constant conflict while Macno uses his pre-existing fame to seize control alluding to Trump’s cult of personality using a spectacle-based approach relying on mass and social media and rallies to bypass traditional institutions and speak directly to his base.
Macro’s rule is also based on the constant projection of a charismatic image, similar to Trump’s mastery of media manipulation and his ability to dominate the news cycle. Both Macro’s and Trump’s administration are described by their creation of a sense of ”unreality”. In Macno’s world, truth is whatever is successfully televised. This mirrors the blurring of reality that defines much of Trump’s presidency’s narrative.
I call this book prescient and prophetic. I read it one session. An immensely gratifying whilst scary as hell experience.
