I never came across “sanctimony” before reading Philip
Roth’s The human stain. The word
occurs almost at the beginning of the novel, prominently at the end of a long
sentence, “the ecstasy of sanctimony”.
“Ninetyeight in new England was a summer of exquisite warmth
and sunshine, in baseball a summer of mythical battle between a home-run god
who was white and home-run god who was brown, and in America the summer of an
enormous piety binge , a purity binge, when terrorism – which had replaced
communism as the prevailing threat to the country’s security, was succeeded by
cocksucking , and a virile, youthful middle-aged president, and a brash smitten
twenty-one- year-old employee carrying on in the Oval Office like two teenage
kids in a parking lot revived America’s oldest communal passion, historically
perhaps the most treacherous and subversive pleasure: the ecstasy of
sanctimony”. –
We know what they say: translator traitor, the Italian
translation, by V. Mantovani of The human stain, La macchia Umana, , (Einaudi,
2001), .dilutes the rhythm of the English sentence, transforms the vulgar and common
“cocksucking” in a neologism “pompinismo”, (that after communism and terrorism,
we have to admit it, sounds rather funny), and the high-sounding “sanctimony”
in the common “ipocrisia”.
Hypocrisy is obviously not the same thing as
sanctimony, although connected to it,
googling it I found : “sanctimonious hypocrisy”
The Oxford English dictionary defines “Sanctimonious” as
follows: “Of pretended or assumed sanctity piety, making a show of sanctity , affecting the appearance of sanctity”., and quotes
Shakespeare’s Measure for measure , (I,ii, 7)
“Thou concluded like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to
sea with the ten commandment, but scraped one out of the table.”
In Measure for Measure, Angelo, as the personification of
the law, does not accept the validity of the civil marriage of Claudio and
Juliet, decides to enforce the rule that fornication is punishable by death,
sentences Claudio to be executed. We discover at the end that Angelo does not
apply the same strict rule to himself
Nomen Omen: Senator Rick Santorum always equates gay civil
marriage with bigamy, polygamy and bestiality. Santorum’s ancestor apparently
came from Riva del Garda, near Mymosa Moon’s little villa. Now being the south
of Germany as well as the north of Italy, it is one of the most affluent areas
in Europe. Had his grandfather been living there now, he wouldn't have migrated to America. Probably one
would think that we Italians need indeed a little bit of sanctimony more than
Americans, and that the migration of the Santorums has been a great loss for
us. But sanctimony is a temptation for every power in every country. I do not forget that Mara Garfagna, minister in Berlusconi’s government , an ex-actress who did not become minister for her beautiful
mind, proposed a law, calling for
more severe punishments and
restrictions of prostitutes, their pimps and their clients. Berlusconi
enthusiastically and loudly supported the law. Tons of laughter have buried it. Italian
journalist Guzzanti has even coined a neologism“mignottocrazia”, Whorecracy,
for Berlusconi’s regime. The story shows, however, that once in power, even persons of
non-impeccable reputation, make it difficult for others to get where they are
by the same means. Sin has to be a privilege, not a common resource available
to everybody, and consent and power have to be conquered and exercised always
at the expense of someone else.
TheSancta Sanctorum chapel, Lateran Palace Rome.
The Holy of Holies Tiberian
Hebrew: קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים Qṓḏeš HaqQŏḏāšîm) is a term in
the Hebrew
Bible which refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle and
later the Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during
the First Temple, which could be entered only by the High Priest on Yom Kippur.
*Wikipedia(.
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