GM:OK, and in Italy then? How did you find a publisher in Italy for this
book?Bifo:Look, I never really tried to find a publisher; the publisher found
me and the book. I wasn’t looking for a publisher because I couldn’t
finish the book and so I was not ready to hand it over. As I told you, I
was working on it without thinking that it would have to become
public. It was the elaboration of an experience, of an apprenticeship,
and this is why I never thought about looking for a publisher. Then I
met Luca Sossella at the very moment that he had decided to get into
publishing. Luca Sossella is a character from another era, an extra-
ordinary aristocrat who had decided to do publicity for ten years in
order to earn a lot of money, and then to invest it entirely in his own
concept of poetic publishing. In fact, he is an editor who now is pub-
lishing poetry, with great success, I have to say, in the domain of
poetry. He published something by Gassman, he published one of my
ideas, and currently some things by Balestrini. So he is very devoted to
poetry, and when he read Félix, he took it as a book of poetry, which
made me very happy.GM:And in fact it is a very lyrical book.Bifo:Well, that was my intention, and this is how Luca read it and he
published it with this great poetic enthusiasm that he has. Unfortunately,
the book came out in a disastrous period, in May 2001, the very moment
when the Right won the Italian elections. This is the period in which we
still live, a moment of absolute dissipation in terms of intelligence and
thought. I remember that we were sitting right here with Luca and the
first copy of Felix,and we learned from the radio that Berlusconi had
won. And here, I believe, is another reason why in Italy the book has had
some circulation: that is, I believe that while the book sold out quickly, it
has remained kind of a cloistered phenomenon, that is for friends and
friends of friends. It did not become a public event.GM:On this point, I have another question: you say that the book sold
rather well, but do you know if Guattari’s thought or your book on Guattari
is taught in Italy, in communication, philosophy or history programmes, in
courses about French thought, or maybe in French departments?Bifo:I know enough about it to say that in the last few years, there has
been a lot of attention given to Deleuze, some to Deleuze and Guattari,Interview with Franco Berardi (Bifo) 1439780230_221192_14_inte.pdf 10/3/08 11:37 AM Page 143