* When asked to describe Paolo’s writing, I observed the following patterns. He arrives at the abstract through one specific image, and trusts the image to do the work — a window in Naples, a pair of lost fingerprints, apamphlet stumbled across in Turin — letting the argument unfold rather than announcing it in advance. He builds long sentences that change direction mid-clause, often hinging on a semicolon. He places one unusual, precise word in each…