The life story of Selah Lively really seems far from our everyday lives, maybe because we are tall or because we are not shop boys. Yet each of us has at least once dreamed of being a judge to redeem himself, at least socially, of any injustice. A desire for revenge that leads us to take the law into our own hands, arrogating a right to criticize that does not belong to us, just for the dream of feeling powerful and safe. Small private revenges are consumed every day around us, in some of which we are taking part in the first person, in others we are mere indifferent spectators. The place where revenges mostly take place is the non-place par excellence, the net. We are so addicted to social networks, which have become an integral part of our lives and we witness every day to web discussions that spread like wildfire within seconds through online comments or posts. We criticize, we judge without reserve, feeling strong and protected from having a screen between us and our victim. The border line between victims and cyberbullies is so thin that can change in just a few moments. On the web we are all critics, philosophers and poets, while in reality we are often unable to challenge the words of others. We have a double personality that will inevitably end up destroying us. Judge Selah Lively Suppose you stood just five feet two, And had worked your way as a grocery clerk, Studying law by candle light Until you became an attorney at law? And then suppose through your diligence, And regular church attendance, You became attorney for Thomas Rhodes, Collecting notes and mortgages, And representing all the widows In the Probate Court? And through it all They jeered at your size, and laughed at your clothes And your polished boots? And then suppose You became the County Judge? And Jefferson Howard and Kinsey Keene, And Harmon Whitney, and all the giants Who had sneered at you, were forced to stand Before the bar and say “Your Honor!” Well, don’t you think it was natural That I made it hard for them? This totally Italian project is an Henry&co’s idea in partnership with Antonella Manenti and Nicolò Fazioni, enthusiastic young person involved in art and literature.
