The Fantastic and the shipwreck of reality: โ€œLooks on the Unknown. Decameron of the Mystery โ€for 2020

โ€œSguardi sull'Ignotoโ€ has just been released, an anthology of fantastic literature edited by Bietti and edited by Andrea Scarabelli and Dalmazio Frau. The collection - which also includes a story written by us ("Tumpek Wayang") - was launched a few days ago in an ebook version and can be downloaded for free at this address: http://www.bietti.it/attivita/ioleggodacasa/. For those interested in a printable pdf version, it is possible to request it at: antares@edizionibietti.com. Courtesy of the Publisher, we publish Scarabelli's introduction here.


di Andrea Scarabelli
introduction a Looks into the Unknown. Decameron of the Mystery, Bietti, Milano 2020 [ebook downloadable for free from site of Edizioni Bietti]

It is very peculiar, as far as I'm concerned, to present an anthology like the one you have in your hands - sorry, on your screens. First of all because never before had I curated a collection of short stories, having dedicated myself exclusively to non-fiction. Secondly, why this anthology is published only on e-books - instrument towards which I have always nourished, not so much for age as for habit (and consequent laziness) of mind, a certain mistrust.

On the other hand, I don't think there is any other way to disseminate such a book at the moment. Unfortunately, the reality of small and medium-sized publishing has been severely penalized by the health emergency in this country. In reality, even if there were a printer willing to print it (and there isn't), there would be no distributor to take it to the bookstore. If the distributor were open, there would be no bookstores willing to reserve it, as they are all closed. AND, last but not least, even if some bookstores were willing to order it, going to buy a copy would involve a sort of Russian roulette, including very high fines and risks of contagion. That is why it is only available in this format, still free to circulate, not being subject to any restrictions.

As I write these lines, the measures to contain the spread ofcreepy guest that for some time now has crept into our lives have not yet loosened, and the world of "culture", as it is often called, continues to suffer. I will not engage in complex long-range political analysis (frankly I do not have the skills, nor do I feel the need, given that in this period theories on theories, analysis on analysis, prophecies on prophecies are already piled up) on a phenomenon that undeniably it has exposed all the structural flaws of a society marked by globalism, delocalization and commodification. It's not there maintenance of the world, but sure of a world, of that specific world. From this point of view, the turning point we are witnessing is epochal. It is difficult to predict what the rewards of this will be Midnight of History.

But, I repeat, all this is beyond the competence of the writer. The purpose of the curators and authors who participated in Looks into the Unknown it is another, if anything, namely to show how the world of independent culture has not stopped at all, but is trying to develop strategies to respond to the situation in which we find ourselves living. Strategies that perhaps, as has already happened in the past, could also be maintained when the situation is resolved - or, in any case, will ease. In short, to face this moment, it is necessary to adopt new canons in the production of knowledge, new grammars that are more suitable and adherent to the context in which we live.

Looks into the Unknown was born from an idea of โ€‹โ€‹his friend Dalmatius Frau, which some time ago proposed to a number of authors to make available on Facebook, free et love gods, stories already published elsewhere but nowhere to be found. A "gift" made to readers locked in the house, in short. As soon as I received the invitation, I relaunched, with the idea of โ€‹โ€‹making it a more organic and durable product, less "volatile", and in just over a week the book that now flickers on your screens was born. Also because, in addition to the readers, the curators are also confined to their homes, and are bored, like everyone else - and there seems to be no way of stopping them ... Finally, the creation of the anthology was made possible by the help of Bietti Editions, who agreed to publish it, maintaining among other things the original idea of โ€‹โ€‹its free form.

The subtitle of this e-book is taken from the introduction signed by Gianfranco de Turris and Sebastiano Fusco to the novel by Arthur Machen The three impostors, published by Fanucci in 1977, in the translation by Roberta Rambelli. Decameron of the mystery: this is how the two curators defined the masterpiece of Welsh writer. An expression that fits perfectly to this anthology, considering the general atmosphere in which they were collected. In the Decameron by Boccaccio, composed in the mid-fourteenth century, for ten days (ฮดฮญฮบฮฑ, "ten", and แผก & ฮตฯแฟถฮฝ, "days") as many young people - seven women and three men - retire outside Florence to escape the terrible plague black that scourged our country, telling each other goliardic, humorous and irreverent stories.

Similarly, the two curators of this anthology imagined a series of authors who found themselves, to escape the situation of these days, in a place sheltered from here and now, from weight of history that hammers our lives. Unlike the one immortalized by Boccaccio, it is a place that does not physically exist and, for this, is more important and fundamental than all existing places. Like theHyperborea of Pindar or theAtlantis of Plato, the Arkham of Howard Phillips Lovecraft or the Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce and Robert Chambers. We hope readers can access it too, as they read the stories that follow.

Stories, among other things, from the most disparate themes. Given the speed with which it was necessary to prepare this volume - we say it immediately, anticipating objections of any kind -, as already mentioned, we asked the authors to recover old works, perhaps published in magazines that cannot be found today or in books out of print (not however, unpublished stories are missing ...). Reading them and rereading them all together, however, they seem to me to offer a unitary picture, developing related themes; those condensed in the title, Looks into the Unknown, un Ignoto is bursts into our prosaic everyday life - today suspended indefinitely.

How long everyone has made their own selection in total autonomy, without consulting with the others, there are ideas and atmospheres that run after each other, all orbiting around the world of fantastic or of bizarre. Thus, we have narratives connoted by elements Lovecraftian, black fairy tales, tales of fantasy and others with historical characters as protagonists (Antoine de Saint-Exupรฉry, Lawrence of Arabia, Benvenuto Cellini ...), settings dreamlike, mysterious events, villages di mountain is appear and disappear, pseudo-diaries escaped the Holy Inquisition, sacrifices a Unknown deities, secret organizations and singular sea โ€‹โ€‹travel that lead in lands not present on the maps...

To dominate undisputed is always the fantastic, in short. Perhaps it is no coincidence, at a time when the real, as we know it, it has come to a halt, it has been suspended, it has become unknown to us. Under pressure from the History,Imagination of these sixteen authors (indeed, seventeen) has hovered in other beaches, breaking free from Shipwreck of Reality. But - this too it should be pointed out, to prevent the sarcasm of fools and bigots - the Unknown that connotes these stories does not incite an escape, but a greater adherence to reality, to the "known".

It is not escapism, in short, as the defenders of Fact Accomplished love to repeat, who stay with their feet on the ground (who, like the materialists in Guccini's unforgettable song, roar proudly in the mud, looking for their little truths like the pigs the acorns), but a run-up, so to speak, aimed at deal with renewed look il world today. By remaining standing there, however degrading and degrading it may be. A new way to regain reality, in short - and, together with it, the Unknown, your occult watermark.


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