Dear Gian Filippo, welcome to Science Fiction and its surroundings. How did the idea of \u200b\u200ba collection as "ambiguous utopia"?
In a jiffy: Walter Catalano had published a book with an editor of the extreme left and I proposed to him - because he had this hook - to explore the possibility to verify to publish something that science fiction had a political impact. Obviously we were driven not only by our passion for Sf, the situation that Italy is going through ... The idea was accepted, but then things did not go as planned and we had to find another publisher, finally finding Bietti.
Bietti Editions: a publishing house, not surprisingly, very active in the political essays, which instead tries his hand at science fiction ...
Bietti In fact, the last few years is no longer that of the first, strongly characterized politically right (you can see by consulting the Web sites: the "old" is Bietti http://www.bietti.it/ , The new http://www.edizionibietti.it/ ). Although I did not understand what is the relationship between them are ... However, it is the first SF book publishing: they have published two novels Pierfrancesco Prosperi, Carlo Bordoni and one of them should be just left one of Errico Passaro. Rather than on science fiction in general I think they are oriented strand utopian / ucronico, which is perhaps more acceptable to a general editor, but we'll see ...
Catalano You and Walter are the curators of the collection. On what grounds was made the selection of the 19 authors? Also, what is the link between the theme of the collection and literary thought or experience of the authors?
has not been made a selection of authors, but of stories. I simply contacted everyone I could, thanks to suggestions from the authors themselves (in particular those of Vittorio Catani, who put me in contact with two or three writers who did not know). Then, as the stories came, read them and judged them, sometimes heatedly discussing. We turned away, because someone is not up to, why not in other topic, some we've made them rewrite or revise. I am particularly pleased that Valerio Evangelisti has joined enthusiastically, that he persuaded Daniel Ganapini to take up the pen after leaving the writing da quasi un trentennio, di aver convinto Vittorio Curtoni a riproporre un suo racconto già pubblicato addirittura nel 1972, di aver tolto dal cassetto un racconto di Claudio Asciuti che lui non riusciva a pubblicare (almeno credo), di avere inserito due scrittori semi esordienti ma validi come Piero Cavallotti e Umberto Rossi. Ma sono forse più contento di quelli che non avendo niente di adatto nel cassetto hanno voluto scrivere appositamente, dimostrando di aver capito perfettamente lo spirito di questa iniziativa. Alludo particolarmente ad Alessandro Vietti e a Milena Debenendetti, che – per inciso – è l'unica donna presente: ma non per colpa nostra, ne avevamo contattate diverse. Personalmente, se mi è concesso, sono lieto del fatto di aver interrotto io stesso un silenzio ventennale in ambito narrativo: non avrei dovuto essere presente come autore, ma poi stimolato dalla lettura degli altri racconti mi è venuta l'idea...
Tutto ciò è avvenuto essenzialmente sotto l'influsso della passione politica, e con questo credo di aver risposto anche alla seconda domanda.
Diciannove racconti di “fantaresistenza”. Una parola affascinante. Dunque l’utopia si colloca necessariamente a sinistra?
Decisamente sì. Ma non lo diciamo solo noi, è già stato sostenuto da Maurice Renard (l'autore di Le mani di Orlac , recentemente pubblicato) già nel 1928, poi da Darko SUVINI and other critics.
Can you explain the presence of the adjective "ambiguous" in the title?
Actually the title should read it all together, Ambiguous Utopia, because it refers to the magazine of the Seventies " ambiguous utopia", the first in Italy to address the relationship between Sf and politics, which in turn took over The subtitle of the novel by Ursula Le Guin The Dispossessed of the other planet. However, the fact is that, unlike the right, which is the granite in his convictions, the left realizes how difficult and complicated the search for true social justice, and how the balance between the various components of society can be unstable even in leftist regimes. Or so I see it. In any case, this is not a treatise on politics, but an anthology of short stories, and narrative fiction: that is ambiguous because, by definition, susceptible to different interpretations.
What information you have provided to each author on the content of your story?
Absolutely none! We only asked for good stories, well written and with a clear political meaning, but we vacated the authors to identify their contents. (So \u200b\u200bmuch so that the story was written by me in part because it filled a gap between the topics addressed, the relationship with the Church.) Another reason has been given great satisfaction from the fact that, while maintaining the unity of the basic, the original concept, the writers have varied along different scenarios with each other and with different tones ranging from satire to drama, the adventure story to psychological or mood. I think a balance is like the dream of every editor of anthologies!
The choice of the theme of utopia, and then the proposition of alternative scenarios in the history of Italy and the world, seems to compensate for a lack of spirit of innovation, and the crisis of values \u200b\u200baffecting the left today. If the current situation had been Italian descritta vent’anni fa, si sarebbe trattato di un ottimo esempio di distopia…
Certamente. Però andrei un po' più indietro di venti anni, secondo me la svolta che ha portato a questo assetto sociale è stata la nascita delle televisioni private, o meglio la loro aggregazione in reti nazionali: in quel momento si poteva prevedere quello che è accaduto.
Nella tua accezione la fantascienza è sempre strumento di impegno politico, o ti trovi a tuo agio anche nelle sue declinazioni più disincantate e di evasione?
La fantascienza, la narrativa in genere e anzi tutte le manifestazioni artistiche devono innanzi tutto essere intelligenti e spontanee, oltre that technically well done. There must be "constructed", except in so far as it is to force every human fulfillment. Following is the purpose for which they were designed, which can make people laugh or cry, think or entertain. I try above all the intellectual honesty of the author, after which I can enjoy anything. I do not see the narrative, fiction or not, as an exclusive tool of political commitment, and then also read the works of pure escapism. But in general I prefer the ones that make me think, for the social, psychological or otherwise, in short, what is normally termed committed literature. Probably after adolescence or early adulthood would not have kept reading if Sf Sf had not turned into adult fiction by authors such as Dick, Ballard, Silverberg and others. But I refuse to read certain authors like Heinlein or fun and exciting Fredric Brown.
I read that you are a member of "Students of Sf center of Venice." What is it exactly?
Oh, you must have found some old enough biographical notes on me! The CCSF was a very active club in years late sixties and seventies and aggregate almost all the fans, by publishing a "News" on which I began to write reviews.
foresee the possibility of translation and marketing in other countries?
I hope so, if only to propagate the idea, but it is essentially the editor and his relationship with foreign publishers.
Why should a reader of science fiction buy "Ambiguous Utopia"?
For everything I've said so far: it is a good anthology, with authors from all over, contains stories by various topics and can be read without reference to the theme of the collection, which is more like a thread . There are stories set in space, in the future, in the past, in an alternate present, in Italy and outside, there are robots, paranormal, alien, virtual reality, there are In short, however, all the stylistic elements of science fiction. In addition there is also the political, social criticism to the Western way of life, the criticism of Italian society, the court not to take on the same left "official." As I wrote in the introductory essay, our goal was to make a step further than the acceptance that science fiction has now also at the academic level: to prove that SF, in addition to no longer be the kind that only deals with "monsters , spaceships and robots, "is a genre that can take care also of society, politics, and above all can do in relation to the contemporary situation, also Italian. And we believe that we were able to prove it.
Ambiguous Utopia. 19 stories fantaresistenza . Ed Bietti, 2010, pp. 395, € 22.00.
Authors: Claudio Ascii, Giovanni Burgio, Walter Catalano, Vittorio Catani, Piero Cavallotti, Vittorio Curtoni, Milena Debenedetti, Valerio Evangelisti, Domenico Gallo, Daniele Ganapini, Francis Grasso, Gian Filippo Pizzo, Pierfrancesco Prosperi, Franco Ricci-Diello , Umberto Rossi, Danilo Santoni, Robert Sturm, Enzo Verrengia, Alessandro Vietti.
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