From “Sitting-Down Literature,” which was written in 1970 and is included in The Written World and the Unwritten World, out this month from Mariner Books. Translated from the Italian.

Sitting is indeed a bad thing, but riding on horseback is certainly no more hygienic. Literary people and horsemen have in common, among many other things, forcing the body into an unnatural position. Still, it’s better to be sitting than to be standing and getting varicose veins. Actually, all man’s ills stem from the decision to be a biped, when his nature wants him to distribute the weight of his…