Everything Is Green

by David Foster Wallace
Project by Alice Dughera, Ludovica Gilardi and Michael Serazzi
In collaboration with Andrea Revello

“Two people, a man and a woman, are inside a parked trailer smoking cigarettes; there has been a downpour in the night and it is early morning. 

The woman says everything is green outside; he, Mitch, looks outside and recognizes green things that are the lawn, trees, bushes and wet leaves; however, he also sees other things that are not green at all. The man is conflicted, feels old, betrayed, tired, and changes his mind several times. The story is told from Mitch’s point of view. The voice is only his.
She is called Mayfly, after the spring insect that stays alive for a few hours. She thus alludes to something ephemeral, elusive.
 The story ends with Mitch addressing the reader saying, ‘Say her name.’
If a visitor were to walk through the structure, he or she would be confronted with an expanse of buildings of different shapes, very tall and close together. The streets are narrow, like a maze. All of a sudden he seems to be facing the entrance to a building that offers a panoramic view. From this a walkway develops, getting narrower and narrower. The visitor walks along it and, having arrived at the furthest point, realizes that he is suspended in the void.”

Liceo Altiero Spinelli (Turin)