Antonio Mancinelli's open letter to Generation Z during COVID-19 lockdown

During Italy's COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, Artribune launched a series of open letters titled 'Lettere dal fronte domestico' (Letters from the Domestic Front). The first contributor was Antonio Mancinelli, managing editor of Marie Claire, who addressed his message to Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2010). Mancinelli encourages young people to use isolation as an opportunity for intergenerational exchange within their families, urging them to listen to their parents' stories and share their own perspectives on sustainability, justice, and self-care. He describes the pandemic as a shared fear across generations, unprecedented in the last fifty years. Mancinelli suggests treating home as an unknown planet to be colonized together, emphasizing that culture and communication are antidotes to the crisis. He mentions reading Martin Amis's 'L'Attrito del Tempo', Sally Rooney's 'Persone Normali', and Jonathan Lethem's 'Il Detective Selvaggio', and notes visiting the temples of Bagan, Myanmar via Google Arts & Culture. The letter concludes with a call to transform collective tragedy into a 'pandemic symphony of stimuli'.