Truth in Stillness

Anthony Randazzo

Enzo Butera is an Italian-American immigrant who moved to the United States in order to support his family, and to make his mark in the construction industry. He is currently facing an ethical dilemma, having become a key eyewitness in a credit card fraud scheme. His ex-brother-in-law Sam, who works in the mailroom at the airport, has been distributing illegally obtained credit cards, and his arrest has turned into a massive federal case involving members of Enzo’s family and a number of his friends. His childhood friend Joe is tragically murdered after inadvertently proving his expendability. His body is never recovered. Presumably it is rotting at the bottom of a construction site, beneath untold tons of poured concrete. For Enzo, this incident highlighted a failure of reciprocity on his part and instigated a self-serving journey back to morality.

This work is a study of dimensional typography in relation to Italian mafia stories. Letters from the typeface Good Sans have been modified to communicate the effect of partially submerged material. Since concrete is a tangible material, historically connected to Italian-American labor since the nineteenth century, it is the key element in solidifying a transparent example of truth.

The microfiction, upon which this type project is based, was written by Anthony Randazzo in a creative writing character workshop with Meghan Ferrill.