Carlota Casiraghi (39): "I don't think you care what others project on you, especially when you're exposed."

In 'La fêlure', her first solo book, Charlotte Casiraghi explores the wounds, vulnerabilities and intimate changes that sometimes make us more aware.

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We met for the first time in Madrid because it is a short meeting but it leaves a mark.Charlotte Casiraghi (Monaco, 1986) had come to present French neurologist and psychiatrist Boris Kirulnik's essay "Childhood and Violence" (Libros del Zorzal) about the invisible scars of early wounds.Chance - or literature, sometimes the same thing - brought us face to face again in Paris.Same concentrated scene.The same notebook is always with him: old, vivid, full of notes that never want to sleep.His presence does not seek to impose itself or compete with the noise of the world;He chooses to open a parenthesis to create a space where thinking, reading and listening are still possible.

In an age that confuses speed and depth, this subtle calm is almost regarded as a gesture of defiance.Her voice doesn't try to persuade: it invites.And this relationship with language is reflected in his work as moderator of the channel's Les Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon, meetings where dialogue is again the focus, not an excuse, and meetings with writers such as Leila Slimani, Rachel Cusk and Jeanette Winterson.

Nor does he conceive of philosophy as an abstract exercise.It is a living passion, a mechanism for questioning what is real, for looking fully at what hurts, disturbs or transcends us.Ten years ago, from this impulse was born Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, the forum he promoted and chaired to think from the academic margin and bring it back to the debate and to the present day.There it brings together philosophers, storytellers, scientists, and artists, among other minds, to discuss common themes such as ecology, education, and truth, with the seriousness that what is shared demands and the curiosity that what is alive demands.

Now, this intimate and intimate journey unfolds in her first solo book (Julliard).A work that deals with the disruptions and disruptions that disrupt us and paradoxically define and protect us.Based on the writings and fortunes of writers, poets and adventurers, this is neither an imposed beginning nor a stylistic exercise, but a natural extension of a sensitive intellectual path.Charlotte writes about how she connects her life with thoughts: with intention.

Do you remember when philosophy stopped being interesting and became a part of you?

There was no exact moment.I think the first contact comes early, in childhood, when we feel that the world is not quite right and we ask ourselves questions.In my case, that passion came later, in my last year of high school, thanks to a teacher who showed me how to approach it in everyday life and showed me that it is not something abstract, but related to what we all experience: love, time, death, justice, work, relationships... Questions There, in those questions that surround us without realizing it, philosophies are born.

That way of thinking is also learned through reading.What books shaped the way you look at the world?

Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil has accompanied me since my youth;I still have that copy full of notes.With him I learned that what is broken can be an opening to truth and beauty.Rilke's letters to a young poet was another defining book: that closeness I felt when someone attentive and humble addressed me directly, gave me confidence, taught me to doubt.and goodbye, by Robert Graves.I read it when I was 15 years old and it changed my perception of war, taking it away from heroism and showing it as a hollow, dirty and destructive machine, and the destroyer of everything that believes in it.Reading it so young changed the way I perceived the environment.

In the way we learned early on, what worries us today about the society we live in?

There are so many reasons to worry: Climate change, armed conflicts... Although I am worried, especially when I think about the next generation, the feeling of sympathy grows.And we still don't understand what that means.Something in us makes us unconscious.We are so fed up that we actually lose our ground and our words lose weight.Even simple things are asking others: "How are you?"It seems pointless.From this point of view, art, especially literature, can educate the soul and make it sensitive.

How to resist this saturation, monotony?

We live in an age where technological power is vast, augmented by artificial intelligence and algorithms, and concentrated in very few hands.This traps us in bubbles where we get confirmation over and over again of what we already believe.I don't know how to resist, but I feel it happens because of something very simple: valuing physical contact between people.Don't accept that human relationships are being replaced by technology.Remember that not everything can happen through the screen.

Would it change anything if it came back in person?

I think so, we are already seeing signs.Even at universities, the meaning of oral and written exams is correct, because they are one of the few reliable ways of evaluating a person: his thinking, the way of expressing his thoughts, his presence.Perhaps it will force us to create more places of meeting, conversation and shared attention.

In La fêlure he explores human weakness from different angles.What made you cross that threshold?

It all started with reading Crack Up by Scott Fitzgerald, an autobiographical text from 1936 in which he speaks candidly about his depression, alcoholism, and personal bankruptcy.When he thinks about his own downfall, he realizes that it is not an event, but an accumulation of wounds and a certain fragility that, over time, becomes a source of exhaustion.Curiosity emerged as something both hidden and public, from which to begin building a new identity.I wanted to explore the tension between what breaks us and what becomes an entry point for simultaneous creation.We all have cracks, and without them there is no story.This is not glorification of suffering, but about recognizing that, sometimes, wounds open up possibilities for transformation.

How do you overcome this gap?

This is not a book about resilience or repair.Rather, it refers to strategies and necessary masks.First we need to identify what hurts and understand why we act in a certain way;Only then can the process of change begin.Vulnerability is unique to each person and depends on their history, their mental makeup, and their environment.That's why I wanted to acknowledge that we have defense mechanisms to protect ourselves and deal with everything, and show different ways and lifestyles of it.Can't.

From the introduction, you talk about intimacy and exposure.How do you find the balance between the two?

I don't think you have complete control over what other people imagine about you, especially when you're exposed.That's why it's important to maintain privacy.You can give a glimpse, but you can't convey everything.What is discovered and manipulated in a book, that is the literary game.

That image of Marie in the chapter L'âme forte waking up at five in the morning with her cell phone in her hand is very current;Sometimes I see myself reflected in it.How has technology shaped our relationship with almost everything, especially ourselves?

Today, we all suffer from a huge attention deficit, and our sensibilities are overwhelmed by a constant overload of images and information that numbs us.We often experience a certain dissociation from reality: disoriented, easily separated from our own feelings.We can also see it in children who are exposed to technology from an early age and show a worrying lack of empathy.And this is really serious, because empathy is born from imagination, from the ability to put yourself in the place of another person, to understand what they can feel.In the sense that I said before, I think literature is a wonderful way to nurture this faculty, more effective than just telling children that they need to be more empathetic.

I am very impressed with Colette and her protective use of makeup.Why are you interested in that tip?

To him, it served as a shield, armor, and even a weapon.It gave him strength when inside he felt weak.For a long time, many women learn to hide pain, to be calm, not to be too much, because showing weakness can backfire on them.And it is not so much to hide or to teach, but to know when and how.Many times our shadows say more about us than our strengths.

In the book, you also attack real motherhood, far from ideal.Are we ready for a less moralistic and more compassionate view?

Today there is a lot of talk about what a good mother looks like, but the truth is that it is more complicated and depends on the story of each woman.Motherhood is a big change, even today we face it.Having children is an emotional and physical burden.growing up at home the way men do, for most, is no longer the case.Although there have been positive changes in the law and greater male participation, the legacy remains: for centuries we were almost exclusively cared for and cared for by the family.Literature and philosophy can help us move away from the moral perspective and accept that knowing our weaknesses is a form of truth, and perhaps the first step toward direct perception and love.

What are some of the areas of women's cultural heritage that you most urgently seek to preserve today?

The idea of ​​everything in the bedroom is, the kitchen, the pair of political room or political office.Virginia Wolfa Warrior about this, and there is a great woman who is a great deal of faces behind her a political person.This shall change into our sect, and will not forget us;but we need to continue the question to all.

Why is it so important to amplify their voices?

Because women are still oppressed in many ways.In many countries the situation has not yet arisen, they are affected by the violence and need a safe space to express their experiences.But it's also important to ask men about these things today.Only in this way will real changes happen.Listen together.It is not about opposing parties, but about moving forward together.

Which women have inspired you over the years?

And there's more... For example, Colette: No matter what others expect of you, go your own way and allow yourself to be many women at once.She had a lot of great freedom to live, work and explore herself.Simone de Beauvoir is also important, especially when I read the memoirs of a young official woman.Her decision to be an intelligent woman and her strong desire to define herself in the face of the fate her family has set for her... is something I've been thinking about a lot.

One of the main themes of the chapter Ce qui est vrai is that violence leaves no visible traces.Why explain these vague injuries?

Today we are more aware of the effects of psychological violence, of those abuses that leave no visible traces.The tongue can become a weapon, and is sometimes used in a hidden and perverse way to hurt.All those terms that tend to essentialize the person, that deny his complexity and his history, make a caricature of the other and can be the beginning of a process of dehumanization.It's very easy to slide down that slope, even when you condemn violence or have experienced it firsthand, if you don't pay real attention to the way we use words.

Do you like to take care of them?

We are creatures of language: with them we build civilizations and build our relationships with others.They can also be instruments of death.War and genocide often begin with words, with ridiculous ideas that slowly build themselves up.

The last chapter crosses the idea of ​​boundaries: mind, body, pride, how does this thinking coexist with the current emphasis on everything?

Pascal was a genius mathematician who was fully aware of the power of science and mathematical reasoning, but also someone who knew intimately the fragility of his own body.His health problems constantly reminded him how grandiose and impotent we can be at the same time, and how our rational faculties are always subject to change and limitations.Nowadays, we tend to believe that science or algorithms can solve our weaknesses and offer a sense of limitlessness, but this remains just an illusion.

What does it mean to you to have emotional courage?

Maybe it has something to do with learning to resist fear without denying it.Bravery is not about feeling it, but not trying to run away or destroy what we think is causing it.Fear forces us into a constant state of confusion and alertness; therefore, we need great inner strength not to be seduced by rhetoric that promises to liberate us from fear.

In a world that rewards perfection and exhibitionism, you demand simplicity, humility, and even imperfection.A revolutionary act?

We live in a culture that measures value in terms of performance, speed, personal branding and visible success.Faced with this inertia, choosing to be opaque, slow, or show vulnerability without turning into a shop window is not an epic rebellion.It is something more discreet and perhaps therefore more necessary: ​​an attempt to resist, to move away from the focus in order to maintain an intimate space where creation can breathe and take place without haste.

What continues to give you hope?

The human ability to think of one thing and its opposite.Hope, however, stood still.