The Doctor is In

Next story on the drawing board – Il Motore di Mario.

Mario’s Engine.

The author is Alessandro Defilippi – writer, psychoanalyst.
The real thing – he even has a short entry on Wikipedia.

Mario’s Engine is a long story, 16 pages.
It is set in Turin, and soaked with jazz music.
Miles Davies, Duke Ellington.
Coltrane.
As it deals with an engine one would expect a science fiction number, maybe a hard science fiction number, but there’s something softer and darker underlying it all, that makes the story had to classify.
Is this truly the New Italian Weird?

Maybe.
But we don’t need no stinking badges at this moment.
The text is thick on the page and deceptively plain – sounds like a monologue, like a confession.
Like a sitting with your favorite shrink.

It will be a long job.
It will be a learning experience.

Absolutely Fabio

Wonders of the web.

I never met Fabio Lastrucci personally.
We exchanged a few mails, or comments on on-line forums, but we never occupied contiguous spaces.
And yet here I am translating his “Nella Stagione Arsa” - In the Scorched Season.

Pure unadulterated fantastic fiction, perfectly written.

Going through his opening passage is like phisically visiting the places he describes – not only Fabio has been able to tap into that pool of shared youthful memories we all share, but he’s been able to conjure them on the page through language and tempo.

The story will catch a few readers by surprise – the revelation of the narrator’s true identity, his musings and experiences…

But after all, isn’t that the reason why we read imaginative fiction?
To be surprised?

Who’s Next

OK.

One story validated, one story in the finishing phases… time to think about the future.

Up next – Consolata Lanza, with Cat, Mousy and Happy New Year.

Despite the somewhat Disney-esque title, this is a deliciously nasty little story set in Turin’s Egyptian Museum.

Now this is weird.
Considering I spent a lot of time in the Egyptian as a high-school student – coming to the point of cutting lessons with a two friends to go and photograph everything on the premises – this thoroughly enjoyable number about three high-schoolers in the shadowed halls of my unlikely teenage haunt does give me few extra shivers.

But I guess everyone will get a little frisson before the end of the story.

More about the author, her crisp language and her story in future posts.

Yo Soy Un Profesional

I was talking with Danilo Arona, yesterday night.
The Wolfman Jack of Italian imaginative fiction, he’s one of the most intelligent persons I know, and a great writer, with an impressive brace of titles on his CV.
It was a rainy night in Alessandria and we were waiting for some book presentation to start and I mentioned one of his stories will be up for translation soon (well, soon-ish).
“The big idea is to try and sell our stuff to the Yankees,” I told him.
He gave me his classic warning grin.
“That’s the closest market on earth,” he said. “Because they are totally dedicated to professionalism.”

Which means you are a writer when you earn your living writing, and a translator when translating is what gives you your daily bread.
Here in Italy, a precious few are up to that – many keep their day job throughout their whole career, and so are “teacher and writer”, “journalist and author”, “doctor and novelist”…
Translators are either part-time creatures or spend their lives chained to the keyboard, alterning a chapter of historical novel with a chapter of true confessions and one of popular science, to be able and reach that minimum page-count per month that will let them survive.

This state of affairs means different timetables for the publishing world – you can’t ask for fast churning out of novels to someone you pay so little he has to work an eight-hour day and then set down to write.
It also means a different attitude of the publishers towards the writers – a bunch of amateurs, after all, right?
And translators?
In the age of computers, if we can do without editors and proof-readers, what do we care for translators? Just go and hire someone fresh form Languages High School…

So, will this Anglo-tongued version of Alia crash and burn under the weight of the unprofessional attitudes of all those involved?
Will the Yankees, and the Japanese, and whoever else, look down upon our landing on their shores (metaphorically speaking), and dismiss our offer as a deliettante effort?

The only thing I know is, if we never try it, we’ll never know.

Ogres, Oni & Demons

I spent the day minding other business – I’m working on a book I hope I’ll be able to publish by the end of the year, so no translations today.

But Max Soumaré, the author of Northern Dream, was kind enough to send me a brief note.
The first part of the story is called “L’Orco della Shinsengumi” – The Ogre of the Shinsengumi.
It’s the nickname of a character, you see.

Now the author informs me that the Japanese word is Oni, which is translated as “Orco” (Ogre) in Italian, but that the Americans probably translate “Demon”.

Now isn’t this just wonderful?
I have yet to start my translation, and already the frigging author is butting in, thinking he knows better than me how to translate his work.
Ah!
I love this job.

And there’s another ten in line after him…

Who’s Next – Massimo Soumaré

I’ve been knowing Massimo Soumarè – who I sometimes call Max, sometimes Soumarek the Stygian – for about twenty years now.

We never went to school together.
We never lived on the same street or in the same block.
We never did the same job – if not in the most loose sense (we both teach, write, translate).
We never dated the same girl – as far as I know, that is.

Quite simply, we have interests in common – many of them: literature, imaginative fiction in particular, history, the East and Japan in the specific, comics, movies…

Now Max is an ace Japanese teacher and translator.
Best in the biz.
He’s the man responsible for Alia Japan, a contact powerhouse and a hard man to match.

We sort of play Fafhrd & Gray Mouser in the Italian literary underworld.
He’s the Mouser.

When it comes to writing, you won’t find an author more different from me than Max.
Sure, each and every writer on this anthology is a true original, but some point in common can always be found.
But Max and me?
No.
Different style, different themes, different techniques, different pace and rhythm, different approach to writing, different “school”, different “voice”.

And what’s Max’s entry in our anthology?
An alternate history, a historical fantasy, with strong ties to actual facts and half a page of references.
Just like mine.
Damn.

We’ll better place a few stories between our titles.
We don’t want to bore the readers.

Not that boredom is an issue with Max’s story – which is short and sweet and athmospheric, and is called Il Sogno del Nord.

Northern Dream.

But Northern Dream was a 1971 Bill Nelson record.
Hell, another title to rework….

Authors list

The first translation is almost finished, time to pick the next.
It will probably be the turn of my old friend Massimo Soumaré.
But ho knows….

And as I am at it, I can publish the preliminary list of authors that will be printed in the English-language Alia anthology.

In no particular order…

• Danilo Arona (website)
• Alessandro Defilippi (interview)
• Davide Mana (blog; website)
• Massimo Citi (blog)
• Silvia Treves (blog)
• Mario Giorgi (profile)
• Consolata Lanza (blog; website)
• Massimo Soumare’ (blog; website)
• Fabio Lastrucci (profile)
• Vittorio Catani (profile; wikipedia)

A few others are waiting in the wings, but the line-up above should represent the backbone of the anthology.

Pathetic?

This project is running the serious risk of turning into something pathetic – or so tongue-in cheekly suggests Massimo Citi on his blog.
Now Massimo is one of the editors of teh Italian version of the anthology, and will be one of the featured authors.
And he’s a publisher and bookstore owner – so he knows what’s he’s talking about.

And indeed, we might crash and burn well before take-off.
But in the meantime, we keep going as usual.

As the translation goes on – slowly. today’s saturday and I’ve still a tiny slice of personal life to nurture – more issues pop up about the English version of Alia.

What will we call it?

• Alia Selection
• Alia Export
• Alia Global
  
• ….
  

Or should we drop the “Alia” label altogether, as it does have little stopping power in the English-speaking world?
And then what?

And what about a subtitle?

• Voices from the Italian New Weird
• Contemporary Italian Imaginative Fiction
• Italians Do It Better
• ….
  

And then, ok, a title.
And what about the cover on which the title will be printed?
Should we contact artists?
Who?

And what should the cover represent?
Something lurid and eye-catching?
Or something stylish and refined?
How much will it cost? How much time will it take?

Problems, problems.
Or, should we say, growing pains?

First Story

I’ll cheat, and start with my own entry for the forthcoming book.
Translating my own stuff should be easier – no doubts about meanings and hidden purposes, wordplays and double-entendres.
No need to mail the author for clarifications.
No stupid comments from the author thinking he knows best.

Translating one’s own stuff is certainly easy.
And I could have made it easier.
Two stories, A Whisp of Smoke, Rising (from the very first Alia anthology) and Electric Shadows (from the second volume) already exist in English.
Both are excellent, solid stories – if I say so myself.
You could label both of them “New Weird” and be pretty close to the mark.
But alas, according to both formal and informal polls among readers, authors and editors, neither is among my best-remembered outings.
Oh, great stuff, they say, but…
But.

So, in the end, I’ll translate Gli Anni del Tuono, an 11.000 words novella which was published in last year’s Alia4, wonderfully illustrated by my friend Dalmazio Frau.
It is a good story, an alternate history yarn.
I got a lot of great feedback on this one, and requests for sequels, or at least for more stories set in the same milieu.
To which I normally reply, We’ll see.

Hell!
It’s long.
It’s full of outlandish words, Latin and technical expression related to Medieval warfare.
It’s got lots of historical references and geographical names.
Translating this one will be hard.

I’ll start with my own entry for the forthcoming book.
If I survive this one, the rest will be mostly downhill.