In «A Christmas Carol with autotune» (Einaudi), the writer Marco Presta takes Dickens to the heart of a Rome dazzled by lights, markets and shopping frenzy, where Christmas goodness becomes a social obligation and music an industrial product. Its protagonist, Aurelio Scrocchia, is a modern Ebenezer Scrooge, a record producer incapable of looking at the world without ferocious sarcasm. Among talentless artists and performers who sing only thanks to autotune, Scrocchia goes through a hallucinated Eve that forces him to come to terms with the ideals he has betrayed. Comedy author and successful radio host – with Antonello Dose he hosts “Il ruggito del coniglio” on Radio 2 – Presta constructs a comic and cruel tale that rereads the Dickensian masterpiece, finding unexpected hope.
Tell the truth, how liberating was it to write this book?
«Very much. I had a little unfinished business with certain songs on the radio that I couldn’t stand anymore. Being able to really let my imagination run wild and let off steam without restraint was almost cathartic.”
Aurelio Scrocchia claims that “children are the assholes of tomorrow”. Is he really that pessimistic?
«It’s what Scrocchia says… but in each of us there is a small version of him: a stiffened, disillusioned, at times ferocious side. Scrocchia only sees the negative because he has betrayed the ideals he held dear and has dried up to the point of no longer granting extenuating circumstances to anyone, not even children.”
In the book “music is a great love transformed into resentment”. What happened, in your opinion, to the recording world?
«It has become an industrial product. Pop music has always been commercial, but it once retained an artisanal, even artistic core. Today it is a mass phenomenon created in drums. On the radio we did an experiment: we asked an artificial intelligence to write and sing songs with pre-established themes. The result? Songs identical, if not better, to 90% of what arrives at Sanremo. This gives the measure of where we have arrived.”
Speaking of Sanremo, its media hypertrophy now dominates the information for weeks on end. Does it upset you?
«Yes, because it is no longer a musical competition. It is a gigantic showcase for vanities of all kinds: singers, actors, politicians, social media personalities. Music, in Sanremo, is almost a pretext.”
In the novel he portrays a neurotic Christmas among stalls, markets, WhatsApp groups and forced rituals. Can we say enough?
«We should. And above all, more authoritative figures and institutions, such as the Church, should say this. Christmas has become the celebration of the birth of Santa Claus, no longer that of Jesus. It is a spiritual occasion reduced to the obsessive search for gifts. A wild industrialization which, compared to childhood Christmases, is quite depressing.”
Then comes the alkaloid, the comic and tragic turning point…
«Yes, Scrocchia accidentally ingests a substance instead of the blood pressure medication. It’s just a push, a narrative alibi, because his conscience is already cracked. From there a sequence of events starts which, as in every Christmas Carol, leads to a change.”
Is tackling a classic like Dickens also a responsibility?
“Absolutely. “A Christmas Carol” is one of the most read books in the world and Dickens is a prodigious writer. When my Einaudi editor, Dalia Oggero, proposed it to me I was scared, I admit it… then the fun took over: imagining a current story that respects that pattern was exciting.”
What makes the Christmas Carol still relevant today?
«He speaks directly to the hearts of men and says: try to change, not to be the disgust you have become. And today we need it enormously. Just look at the world situation, the leaders who seem to be leading us towards conflict instead of peace, it is a dark time. Precisely for this reason we need someone who lights up hope.”
Do you believe that there is a limited amount of happiness and unhappiness in life?
«Yes: both are precious and should not be wasted. Happiness is more pleasant, of course, but unhappiness also plays a role, if it pushes you to find the will to live again. We shouldn’t waste that either. Pain is useful if, at a certain point, we can move away from it. It’s a push. I once wrote a joke: “Pain is useful, but now get off my foot please.” Here, it still applies today.”
The book, without spoilers, arrives at hope. Can we really afford it?
«We are obliged. We have no alternatives: we are condemned to hope. And today we must do it more than ever.”
Max Paiella’s illustrations add a very strong visual dimension. How did the four-handed work arise?
«I knew that Max had a talent for drawing, and I immediately proposed him. He made the first sketches and Einaudi welcomed them with enthusiasm. Working with a friend, exchanging ideas in a natural way, was a privilege.”
If you had to choose: do you feel more Grinch or more Santa Claus?
«Actually, neither of them. They are figures devoid of spirituality, and this is one of the great problems of our era. It is no coincidence that Santa Claus was invented by Coca-Cola: capitalism is very clever in appropriating even the holidays. We need to be careful of both icons. The path should be another, but it will be up to someone more authoritative than me to indicate it.”