Living in the gray area

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up Life and arts myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.

As always with “Golden Era” television, the beauty of the picture is the first thing you notice and ultimately the only thing you notice. Netflix film adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Cheetah Gorgeously empty. It’s only worth your time insofar as it takes you back to the 1958 novel.

It is true that the story is faithful to the original. 1860. Unification of Italy. The modern world comes knocking on the door of the aristocrat, who responds with a mixture of lukewarm reform and a kind of luxurious inertia. But the screen cannot do the irony. The charm of Lampedusa is that he longs for the old feudal hierarchy, and rejects it as untenable. He blames the likes of Garibaldi for being too utopian, not going as far as the French revolutionaries. Lampedusa himself, a deep-rooted Sicilian whose happy place was industrial and impersonal London, was as mysterious as the book he wrote.

Is it the perfect novel? I’ll just say it’s the perfect mental training for a world made up of more gray areas than ever before.

“We are not at war, but we are not at peace either,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a somewhat Lampedan phrase last month. It meant that Russia was subjecting democratic Europe to airspace violations and other tests that fell short of a direct military attack. React less to this behavior, and it will spread. If it moves in the other direction, outright war will break out. People always worry about the West’s “resolve” and so on, but the challenge here is whether we can make a good intellectual adjustment.

With a turbulent United States, most countries have to play a double game. We are all “non-aligned” now

Or consider the conflict between the United States and China, which leaves the rest of the world almost a gray area. This is not the Cold War, when America had more than 40 percent of global output and was fully committed to protecting its allies. In those circumstances, its bloc membership was rational. Now, with a US volatile in the face of an economy too large to ignore, most countries, including Western countries, must play a double game. We are all “non-aligned” now.

By the way, how clearly Sir Keir Starmer is a natural at this. He has pushed Britain closer to Europe and China, while somehow ingratiating himself with Donald Trump, who has little interest in either. The confusion that costs Starmer at home is exactly what works on the fragmented world stage, where fixed commitments are a mug game. Leave? The word is a compliment.

This century cannot be navigated without some gift of irony. Last week, liberals complained about British and American comedians performing in Saudi Arabia. good. I remember when the sentence was that we shouldn’t “judge.” However, given the relative rise of the non-Western world – of Gulf investments in stagnant Europe, for example – it is not clear what plan is viable other than one of simultaneous repulsion and engagement. in CheetahThe prince allows his nephew to go with the daughter of a wealthy merchant and he complains.

Incidentally, Lampedusa believed that opera was a wrong turn because it made people addicted to clear and strong emotions rather than shades of meaning. Hence, he sees Italy’s failure to “get” Jane Austen. Imagine being so committed to nuance that you consider Verdi a mistake.

I never know what to make of the old saying that holding contradictory ideas is a sign of high intelligence. Some minds are dogmatic and one-track but also first-rate, such as Lenin’s. There are those who are on the fence (such as those who “support both sides” in the Ukraine war) and are clearly foolish. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that being comfortable with contradiction is a sign of transcendence a personalityBecause it requires unity. There’s never a team to join. Lampedusa struck the left flank as a paralyze Old system and his blue-blooded colleagues as traitors to the class. At least, having died before the book came out, he didn’t have to endure their fire. Most mystery dealers aren’t that “lucky.”

If we look back from middle age, some of our most memorable romances lasted a few months: enough to build a bond but not enough to allow for routine. (We still don’t have a mature way to talk about it. At 43 years old, I don’t say “situation.”) But being human, one or both parties will crave steadier ground before long. Politically or personally, the gray zone is the zone of maximum exposure, and that’s a reason to salute those who stand there.

[email protected]

Find out our latest stories first – Follow FT Weekend on Instagram, Bluesky and Xand subscription To receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning