Author's Note: "The Pig" is an allegorical short story, but its scope is not so restricted as it may seem at first. It would be more correctly defined as a "civil" story, rather than a "political" one. A story of the collapse of reason, it deals with the decay of symbols and the celebration of rotting myths. In this way it is not strictly an Italian story, but one about the worst aspects of mass mentality around the world. In truth, the main character is not the pig itself, who doesn't do anything during the entire story (except grunt). The main character is the crowd that gives the pig a standing ovation. But of course, applause can be dangerous.