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My current/recent readings:

Fiction+Nonfiction:
William Burroughs, David Wojnarowicz, Angela Carter, Barbara Alberti, Stephen Vizinczey, Viktor Frankl, George Steiner, Emil Cioran, Umberto Eco, Claudio Magris, Noam Chomsky, Pierre Bourdieu, Frank Furedi, Gabor Csepregi, Emma Goldman, Erica Jong, Lewis Carroll, Giorgio Manganelli, Malcolm Gladwell, Kalle Lasn

Poetry:
Shir Hashirim (The Song of Songs), Homer's Odyssey, Szymborska, Tsvetaeva, Celan, Noventa, Carmelo Bene

Man is responsible for what he does, for what he loves, and for what he suffers
Viktor Emil Frankl

The body is wiser than its inhabitants.
The body is the soul.
The body is God’s messenger.
Erica Jong, Fear of Fifty

The rhythmic contact of the hand with the body of the beloved person is prompted by the affective component of the tactile impression. [...] We may compare the caress to music-making: just as the flow of sounds provides an impulse to the subtle and delicate movements of the violinist's fingers, the feeling-tones stemming from tactile contacts induce the approaching and withdrawing motions of the hand.

Gabor Csepregi,The Clever Body, p. 32

History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation from its masters through its own efforts.
It is necessary that woman learn that lesson, that she realise that her freedom will reach as far as the power to achieve her freedom reaches.
It is, therefore, far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs.
The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.
Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate.
It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds.

Pettiness separates, breadth unites.
Let us be broad and big.
Let us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles confronting us.
A true conception of the relation of the sexes will not admit of conqueror and conquered; it knows of but one great thing; to give of one's self boundlessly, in order to find oneself richer, deeper, better.
That alone can fill the emptiness, and transform the tragedy of woman's emancipation into joy, limitless joy.

Emma Goldman, The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation, 1906

Le figlie d'Israele vivono a testa bassa. Io guardo invece negli occhi le creature di Dio, perché il mondo è nello sguardo degli uomini, e voglio vederlo. Per questo a Nazareth dicono che sono sfacciata come una Samaritana. Per questo nessuno m'ha ancora chiesta a mio padre. Egli se ne vergogna. Io, segretamente, ne gioisco: se qualcuno mi volesse sarei perduta. Diverrebbe uno sciocco sogno, la fuga. Un padre punisce, il marito uccide. E appena mi accorgo che qualcuno mi guarda, io faccio qualche piccola stranezza che va sulla bocca di tutti, e l'uomo scompare. Ho studiato in silenzio la viltà degli uomini; basta poco a tenerli lontani. Quanto a me, voglio tessere piuttosto la mia sorte.

The daughters of Israel live with their head bowed down. I, instead, look in the eyes of God's creatures, because the world is in the look of men, and I want to see it. That is why, in Nazareth, they say I am brazen like a Samaritan. That is why nobody has yet asked my father for me. He is ashamed of it. I secretly rejoice in it: if someobdy wanted me, I would be lost. It would become a silly dream, my escape. A father punishes, the husband kills. And as soon as I notice someone looking at me, I do some little weird thing that goes on everyone's lips, and the man disappears. I have silently studied men's cowardice - it takes little to keep them away. As for me, I rather want to weave my own destiny.

Barbara Alberti, Vangelo Secondo Maria [The Gospel According to Mary]
(translation by Elisabetta Zoni)

Barbara Alberti, Gelosa di Majakovskij
The life and death of Vladimir Majakovskij, told like a police report
by a spy who loved him

Ascolto: Barbara Alberti parla di "Gelosa di Majakovskij"