Mafalda

 

Name: Mafalda, surname: not that she uses it much, but you may imagine what it is. She is six years old, she loves the Beatles, democracy, children’s rights, peace (and changing the order of her passions things do not change). She hates soup  (see “children’s rights”), weapons, war, James Bond. She is not to the only one in the world to hate soup, but the fact that to her it represents the most terrible of all punishments it is perceived when, disappointed and desolate, she defines the world as a “soup”. And the world is so indigestible that if someone wanted to sell it they wouldn’t even find a convincing advertisement. However, even if Mafalda is dissentient and rebellious, she is still a child, this is why she does not abandon the world to its fate, but she speaks with it and nurses it putting even plasters on its wounds if necessary. She invites it to improve, she exhorts it to resist, she makes it promise her that it would be still there when, as an adult, she’ll be an interpreter at the UN. It’s true, she holds the plate with her globe, which is only a reproduction of the decrepit original one, but what is important are the intentions and those of Mafalda are sincere. You can clearly see she is small, when she is under her covers or on the swing: “As usual, as soon as you put your feet on the round, fun finishes”. It is up to the reader and his ability to read children, just as children are able to read us, to understand what are the feet and the world she refers to. This is possible only if we are awaken and ready to answer, rather than fuddled in front of a TV that, even if you change channel, does not change the discouraging results: “Nothing! Television everywhere” upon Mafalda’s honor.