One of the problem we have been facing all these years with the Italian public lays in the fact that Alia does not have a monolithic genre label.
Between the covers of our anthology, we have published stories that could be labeled as fantasy (historical, urban and dark), science fiction (in all its permutations), horror, fairy tale, surrealism, satire.
This causes a certain headache to Johnny Reader, that normally likes his genres straight and well defined – if he reads, say, military SF, he stays well clear of sword& sorcery… etc.
At the same time, Johnny Critic has more problems, as he can’t pigeonhole the book and color-code it.
And Johnnt Bookseller, not knowing on which frigging shelf to place the book, drops it in the “magazines” section of his bookstore and hopes to forget about it.
But now, at least for the English speaking market we do have a straight genre label, which comes with the added bonus of being new, cool and supported by serious critical debate.
We did not know – hey, we live at the margins of the Empire! – but all these years we have been publishing honest to goodness New Weird.
Thankfully, old friend and accomplice David Farnell does a good job at reviewing the anthology that is set to define the genre.
So going into that core section, readers have been prepared with the knowledge that the New Weird has drunk deep from the well of fantasy, but not the half-elves-and-heroes epic fantasy that crowds the bookstore shelves.
Instead, it is a more urban fantasy, featuring modern problems, fresh perspectives, and a less-heroic, more-realistic appraisal of its characters.
It has also sucked at the teat of horror, but refuses to deal with it as the typical horror story does, that is, keeping the horror at a distance, something alien to the characters, until they come together in cathartic climax. Instead, the worlds and characters of the New Weird unflinchingly embrace the horror from beginning to end, seeing it as the norm, sometimes unpleasant or grotesque, but often at the same time beautiful or at least necessary.
Much of the New Weird is thus strongly reminiscent of Lovecraft’s dark-fairy-tale stories of the Dreamlands, rather than his more well-known tales of cosmic horror.
In the latter, the horror is often born of a sort of culture shock on encountering the alien; in the former, as in the New Weird, culture shock is a part of living in a world where the alien is something to be understood and even loved, and where being shocked out of complacency is both necessary and welcome.
Yep, that’s us.
Now on to translating the book!
