Morte malinconica del bambino Ostrica

e altre storie

Tim Burton, Nico Orengo

• Publisher: EINAUDI
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9788858426708

In questo libro Tim Burton, il regista di Ed Wood, Batman, Edward Mani di forbice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mars Attacks!, Il Mistero di Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, La fabbrica di cioccolato e La sposa cadavere, scrive ballate e poesie, e le illustra con tratto lieve. Con la stregata malinconia che pervade i suoi film, Burton ricrea la magia degli antichi libri illustrati per ragazzi portandola in uno stralunato mondo di robot, mostri e dolenti assurdità, e donando a questi figli del nostro tempo una irrevocabile grazia. Del resto tutta l'opera di Tim Burton è segnata da una cifra inequivocabile di orrore, comicità e insieme malinconia, che apparenta le sue figure di esseri sconfitti, o almeno colpiti da un'assoluta solitudine, alle invenzioni della grande arte e letteratura di tutti i tempi. I bambini protagonisti di questo libro sono poco piú che Cose Animate, fragilissimi ma irriducibili nella loro voglia di vita, sempre sul punto di essere distrutti da qualche crudeltà di Adulto. Per il lettore italiano, Nico Orengo ha reinventato da poeta i versi di Tim Burton, facendoli propri, e il risultato è un libro doppiamente godibile. Un libro per adulti dal cuore di bambino, e anche per bambini veri.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy

& Other Stories

Stick Boy and Match Girl in Love

Stick Boy liked Match Girl,

he liked her a lot.

He liked her cute figure,

he thought she was hot.

But could a flame ever burn

for a match and a stick?

It did quite literally;

he burned up pretty quick.

Robot Boy

Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a wonderful life.

They were a normal, happy husband and wife.

One day they got news that made Mr. Smith glad.

Mrs. Smith would be a mom,

which would make him a dad!

But something was wrong with their bundle of joy.

It wasn’t human at all,

it was a robot boy!

He wasn’t warm and cuddly

and he didn’t have skin.

Instead, there was a cold, thin layer of tin.

There were wires and tubes sticking out of his head.

He just lay there and stared,

not living or dead.

The only time he seemed alive at all

was with a long extension cord

plugged into the wall.

Mr. Smith yelled at the doctor,

“What have you done to my boy?

He’s not flesh and blood,

he’s aluminium alloy!”

The doctor said gently,

“What I’m going to say

will sound pretty wild.

But you’re not the father

of this strange-looking child.

You see, there still is some question

about the child’s gender,

but we think that its father

is a microwave blender.”

The Smiths’ lives were now filled

with misery and strife.

Mrs. Smith hated her husband,

and he hated his wife.

He never forgave her unholy alliance:

a sexual encounter

with a kitchen appliance.

And Robot Boy

grew to be a young man.

Though he was often mistaken

for a garbage can.

Staring Girl

I once knew a girl

who would just stand there and stare.

At anyone or anything,

she seemed not to care.

She’d stare at the ground,

She’d stare at the sky.

She’d stare at you for hours,

and you’d never know why.

But after winning the local staring contest,

she finally gave her eyes

a well-deserved rest.

The Boy with Nails in His Eyes

The Boy with Nails in His Eyes

put up his aluminum tree.

It looked pretty strange

because he couldn’t really see.

The Girl with Many Eyes

One day in the park

I had quite a surprise.

I met a girl

who had many eyes.

She was really quite pretty

(and also quite shocking!)

and I noticed she had a mouth,

so we ended up talking.

We talked about flowers,

and her poetry classes,

and the problems she’d have

if she ever wore glasses.

It’s great to know a girl

who has so many eyes,

but you really get wet

when she breaks down and cries.

Stain Boy

Of all the super heroes,

the strangest one by far,

doesn’t have a special power,

or drive a fancy car.

Next to Superman and Batman,

I guess he must seem tame.

But to me he is quite special,

and Stain Boy is his name.

He can’t fly around tall buildings,

or outrun a speeding train,

the only talent he seems to have

is to leave a nasty stain.

Sometimes I know it bothers him,

that he can’t run or swim or fly,

and because of this one ability,

his dry cleaning bill’s sky-high.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy

He proposed in the dunes,

they were wed by the sea,

their nine-day-long honeymoon

was on the isle of Capri.

For their supper they had one spectacular dish–

a simmering stew of mollusks and fish.

And while he savored the broth,

her bride’s heart made a wish.

That wish did come true – she gave birth to a baby.

But was this little one human?

Well,

maybe.

...