Luke Burgis: evaluation

Transcript context

…It’s become somewhat more popular, though. There’ve been some New York Times articles. The food has drawn some people, I think. My test for whether or not I’ll get along with somebody is their reactions to Naples after they’ve been there. That’s my number one test. To the Northern Italian question, there’s a great book on Italy, if you haven’t read it. It’s called The Italians by Luigi Barzini in the ’60s. It’s just a fantastic book. I think that the North has a little bit less of the animated Italian gestures and spectacle that you get in the South. It’s a little more reserved. I would say that because of that, it’s less mimetic than the South. I think that disposition, that flamboyant way of being, is the more mimetic thing about the South, about Naples. Speaking of Barzini, what do you think of his hypothesis that the face an Italian will show you, in terms of level of cheeriness, depends on how your status is perceived? He thinks they’re somewhat of a sad people, but they seem happy to outsiders because they put on that face for the higher-status outsiders.…

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