Paolo Nori on Virtual Reality and the Writer's Craft

Writer Paolo Nori reflects on his difficulty understanding modern concepts like 'virtual reality' and 'live delayed broadcast,' which he finds contradictory. He connects this to his work as a writer, citing Bukowski's idea that writing requires only a typewriter and a chair, and that sometimes finding the chair is hard. Nori describes how in difficult moments, he laughs like Russian writer Venedikt Erofeev, then does small tasks with clear beginnings and ends, such as mailing a book, putting on running shoes, taking medicine, washing dishes, or pressing the bus stop button—actions that make virtual reality momentarily real. He references Viktor Shklovsky's notion that art exists to make the stone stony, and recalls reading Velimir Khlebnikov's poem in Parma's Guanda library, which made the place feel more itself. Nori also quotes painter Vladimir Shinkarev on beer atoms and sociologist Paolo Jedlowski on listening quality shaping storytelling. The article originally appeared in Artribune Magazine #31.