Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313317
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS THE massive outpouring of grief witnessed in the last few days, coupled with the urgency, espe- cially on social media, to record and recount individual encoun- ters with the man, confirms him as the last of a breed of intellec- tuals, if not an extremely rare and most unique one for Malta. One who spoke a language un- derstood by all, and whose de- mise rallied people from all walks of life to salute him through their wistful stories and reminiscenc- es, now laden with pride, joy, and even a sense of privilege at having been touched in one way or another by a historical figure. The privilege of having had ac- cess to the man and his words, from the ones who studied his critical works and attended his lectures, to those who might have overheard a phrase on a ra- dio programme, memorised his verses from a bus stop, or stum- bled serendipitously on some of his memorable writings. I found myself in agreement with all the paeans that I scoured through in the last few days. They also reminded me of the man I forgot about, after years away from Malta, or due to the fact that I remember Friggieri at his best, and then followed him less in the last years of his ca- reer. Fortunately, and here's my little story, last year I knocked on the wrong door at Universi- ty, wanting to speak to the de- partment secretary, and I found myself in Oliver's office – as he insisted on being called, with me refusing adamantly – and be- ing gifted with pencil drawings, this talent I never knew of, and which I now treasure dearly. The humble man, the gentle rebel, as many have remarked; but al- so, now that I jog my memory, a man with a sophisticated sense of humour, a master raconteur, a greater sense of irony and of the ridiculous, which enabled him to suffer fools gracefully and liqui- date them painlessly through a deadpan phrase, a meaningful silence, a resigned smirk. Indeed, I strove to find some- thing that really struck me about Oliver, something that will stay with me, a jealous attempt at having my own personal mem- ory. At being the first one to it, at not having to nod approvingly to yet another aspect mentioned by someone else. A vain exercise, but probably one fuelled by love for a man loved by many, des- perately being claimed by all. The greatest lesson I learnt from Professor Friggieri, thus – in my attempt for a unique and original reminiscence – was the value of doubt. The lack of any certainty, the distrust of vacuity, the avoidance of platitudes and the deviously commonsensical. The obsessive importance of words and their parsimonious use. The need to love them all, but then the ability to discern which ones to trust and keep, and which ones to discard, through their painful and careful dissection. And, once you're done, go back, and beware before committing. The fear of making the mistake. Not the fear of failure: Oliver surely approved Beckett's "Fail again, fail better". But the com- mitment to the truth, a fanatical fidelity to the word, despite it's inherent limits in explaining a baffling world. This fear of cer- tainty, this worship of doubt, was a lesson not devoid of its perils. Whilst probably intended as a deterrent to presumption, proud ignorance, the arrogance of power and entitlement – surely a necessary medicine for the days we're living – it might have crippled many others, who either never took a plunge they could have taken, or else sourly realised limits which they how- ever peacefully accepted and did not end up forcing on others. Through this battlecry for rig- our, Oliver might have rightly predicted our age of amateurs and fools rushing in to tread over fearful angels. Which illustrates Friggieri's political legacy, once again a gentle rebellion which goes beyond the normally ac- cepted schemes of power, which he himself rejected through his thorough investigation of the national consciousness and the rejection of political tribalism. Akin to Mikiel Anton Vassalli and Manwel Dimech, Friggie- ri's politics cannot be submitted to a sectarian logic or a facile pigeon-holing. As national in- tellectuals, these men probed deep into the white-hot core of the matter, with the common trait being the identification of the essentials, the obvious, for the formation of a nation. The bleeding obvious, not as a euphe- mism, but as the oozing urgency of the festering wound: language as expression and as identity, a non-mythical approach to histo- ry, a recognition of the real dy- namics of power, discarding the Paean to a professor As a student of Friggieri, I'd take his word on mostly everything, fanatically hanging from his lips. As many others did, it seems.... Mark Vella, author of X'Seta' Ġralu lil Kevin Cacciattolo? and anthologist of the Juann Mamo short stories in Ġrajja Maltija, remembers Oliver Friggieri and his work Even if potentially subject to being discarded as uncritically conservative, Friggieri's last works merit a more thorough analysis, as the crowning of his vision throughout his career