Italian Science Fiction - Interview with Arielle Saiber


Carlo Jacono cover painting from Urania, #235 (1960). src

Arielle Saiber joins Diamond Bay Radio for an interview on Italian Science Fiction and Italian fandom.

This interview was inspired by Saiber’s article “Flying Saucers Would Never Land in Lucca: The Fiction of Italian Science Fiction “ (2011), which refers to a comment by the Urania editor, Franco Lucentini, about why Italy never became the setting for science fiction stories.

But according to Saiber: “Wait a second, if I were a flying saucer… If you ever seen the piazza in Lucca, it’s a perfect oval. I would totally land there!. As you noted, the explanation is that Lucentini thought, and many Italians think, that Italy is not a place for aliens, for thinking about the future, for thinking about alternative realities. Our fame is in the past. We are not where aliens would land.”

In this interview Saiber provides extensive details about why Italy really is the place for Science Fiction.

LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD MP3 on Diamond Bay Press


Carlo Jacono cover painting Urania #231 (1960). src

references:

[1] The Connectivist Manifesto engish - italian

[2] URANIA magazine cover archive link

[3] Italian Futures volume of California Italian Studies v.2, n.1 (2011)

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