Newsgroup: it.sport.calcio.estero
Titolo: Luther Blissett

From Watford striker to top novelist - but only the name's the same
Italian collective listed for book prize calls itself Luther Blissett
Sophie Arie in Rome and John Ezard
Thursday August 28, 2003
The Guardian
Luther Blissett, the former Watford and England footballer who became a cult
figure in Italy following a disastrous season at AC Milan, may not have
realised he was also destined to become a talented novelist. It took a few
"relatives" from Bologna to help him find out.
They started out as a postman, a bouncer, a librarian and a social worker in
the northern Italian town. Then they decided to pool their energies and
write a collective novel, rolling their identities into the single
pseudonym: Luther Blissett. Now they are enjoying the proceeds of the book
they wrote under his name and which was yesterday named one of 10 books
longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2003.
Roberto Bui, Federico Guglielmi, Luca Di Meo and Giovanni Catabriga, all in
their 30s, broke new literary ground in 1999 as the first "cooperative" to
write a bestseller in Italy. They are four members of a group of Italian
artists and leftwing activists who began using the name of the Watford
football player as a "multi-use" signature.
The novel, entitled Q, has already sold more than 200,000 copies in Italy
and has been translated into 10 other languages, reaching this country in
English translation in May.
The good-versus-evil spy thriller, set during the Reformation in Italy and
Germany, took the four men three years to write. It is meant, they say, to
show "the birth of all that is rotten in modern life", showing the origins
of the police state, financial capital and intelligence services - as Bui
puts it, "all that is in crisis now".
The novel is named after its chief "baddie", a Vatican secret agent who goes
only by his initial. The "goodie" has no name.
"We knew it was a good book. But we never thought it would be this
successful," said Bui last night from Bologna. "Four heads are better than
one. None of us could have written the book alone."
Weird
Bui argues that literature is the last of the arts where collective
composition is still considered "weird".
"Our brainstorming sessions were fun. We didn't have any disagreements
because, unlike businessmen, if there were different ideas we just kept them
all. After all, we wanted to make the plot as thick and as complicated as
possible."
When it came to writing up the story, the four divided the chapters
randomly. The book is under "copyleft" (as opposed to copyright), meaning
readers can freely make copies for non-commercial use.
At the time of Q's publication in Italy, theories abounded as to who the
mystery writer could be and some suspected that Umberto Eco, another
resident of Bologna, was the real "Luther Blissett".
Bui dismissed this idea: "Excuse my French, but that's bullshit," he said.
"There is no similarity in the literary style. Our book lasts 30 years, not
a week. I'm afraid the only reason British journalists latched on to that
idea [that Eco was the real author] was because the Name of the Rose was
probably the last Italian book they read." Eco also denied all involvement.
The authors say they do not know who first "stole" the footballer's name but
once it became their pseudonym, it "spread like a disease".
The unwitting footballer, who rose to fame in Italy because of his
spectacularly dismal season as an AC Milan striker in 1982, became the
codename for art installations, militant action and random spoofs including
an exhibition of "chimpanzee art".
"He was a nice Afro-Caribbean guy," they explained. "His unlucky season even
turned him into a target of racist jokes. The Luther Blissett Project is
kind of his revenge on stupidity."
In one incident, four "Luther Blissetts" ended up on trial in 1997 after
they tried to hold a "psychogeographical" party on a Roman bus without
buying any tickets.
The inclusion of Q in the Guardian award longlist was made possible by a
rule change throwing the Ł10,000 prize open to translations of first-time
authors. This gives European writers an even chance with those whose first
language is English. Claire Armitstead, the Guardian's literary editor and
head of the judges, said: "We've always been strong on American novels, but
the inclusion on the longlist of an Italian historical thriller means that
we have been able to honour the riches of European fiction."
The change means the list has six UK authors, two Australians, an American
and the four from Bologna. It includes two novelists already nominated for
the Booker prize, Monica Ali and DBC Pierre.
A shortlist of five books will be chosen in late October. The winner, to be
announced in December, will receive Ł10,000 and an advertising package in
the Guardian and the Observer.
The judging panel includes the novelists Blake Morrison and Sarah Waters,
the scientist Steven Rose, the broadcaster Sheena McDonald and the comedian
Bill Bailey, with Georgina Henry, deputy editor of the Guardian.
Last night, Luther Blissett himself said: "It's something that I've stayed
clear of; you've got no control over these kinds of things.
"People were saying to me you should read it, but why? It's got nothing
directly to do with me. Nobody asked my permission to use my name or
anything like that. But what can I do about it? They get on with it and I
observe from a distance."
Blissett might be relieved to know that his self-appointed clones
collectively committed a "ritual samurai-style suicide" in December 1999,
when their five-year project, inspired by Stalin's first five-year plan to
collectivise the Soviet economy, came to its scheduled end. Immediately
afterwards the authors of Q set up a new group.
The success of their first novel has allowed them to dump their jobs and
become full-time writers. More recent novels include 54, an imaginary saga,
set in 1954, about MI6's attempt to coax Cary Grant into making a film with
the Yugoslav dictator Marshal Tito.
The new group goes under the collective pen name of WuMing, Chinese for "no
name".

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