Languages student Ione Gildroy talks to Italian teacher Marco Palone about his prize-winning science fiction. HTML HTML By Ione Gildroy, Final year French and Italian MA Hons student, Student Ambassador and journalist Although I was taught by Italian tutor Marco Palone in my first year studying Italian at Edinburgh, I didn’t know that alongside his busy teaching schedule Marco also writes science fiction novels.As an avid reader and someone who enjoys science fiction, I was excited to find this out, and to get the chance to speak to Marco about his work, especially as he had just won the Trofeo Cassiopea (Cassiopeia Trophy) for Italian language science fiction for his book Progetto Ganimede, the first novel in his Bharatmata Trilogy.How did it feel to win the award? Image Marco receiving the Trofeo Cassiopea at the Italian science fiction convention DeepCon in March 2024 It was a great surprise. If you consult the Cassiopea Trophy website, you can see in the list of winners that there are some of the most important Italian science fiction writers, including Dario Tonani and Francesco Verso, whose works have been translated in many languages. Being on this list and being associated with the most famous Italian science fiction authors was an honour. I am very grateful to those who organised the prize which allows emerging writers to get noticed.What inspired you to write 'Progetto Ganimede'?The inspiration for Progetto Ganimede was born many years ago. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which the largest ethnic groups are Asian: Indian and Chinese. This is because it is not taken for granted that the future will resemble Western civilisation. I believe that the Star Trek model of the future that seems like a continuation of American history in space is outdated. The core of Progetto Ganimede's inspiration was the Indian epic, The Mahabharata, and the story of Prince Yudhistirah with his reflection on violence, which still seems very current to me today, in fact it gives shivers for how current it is. In taking inspiration from India to imagine the future, I was inspired by an author of Scottish origins, who I read after having already conceived the first ideas of Progetto Ganimede; Ian McDonald, in particular his River of Gods and Cyberabad days. How long have you been writing fiction for? Do you plan to write/are you writing more books? My first publication was Il Silenzio dei Sogni in 2010, a collection of short stories, of various inspirations but with the surreal element in common. I recently revised and added to this collection, added new stories and republished it with a new title: La donna senza collo. I have also written another collection of short stories, this time all science fiction, set in Progetto Ganimede’s narrative universe. And, in the last month, two years after Progetto Ganimede came out, I’ve published the second volume of the Bharatmata Trilogy: Oltre la Rinascita. What role does Italian culture and language play in your sci-fi writing, and how do you incorporate these elements into your storytelling? Progetto Ganimede's epigraph is a quotation from Ti con zero by Italo Calvino, an author I admire who continues to teach me a lot. The quote's idea is that we ourselves build the image of the perfect prison, because in our mind the imagined prison is more powerful than the real one, which instead may be imperfect and may have weaknesses that the abstract idea of prison has not. The prison-fortress represents a reality that seems too incomprehensible and indecipherable to us, where our problems seem perfectly insoluble and of which we feel like victims. Apart from this, Italian culture is deliberately represented in the novel as a minority: the protagonist is of distant Italian origins but he is isolated in a world dominated by Asia. My study of narratology and classical philology has influenced my writing, some images are inspired by the ancient Greek novel, in particular the Ethiopian Stories by Heliodorus. Language teaching (Italian here in Edinburgh and classical languages in Italy) has influenced me because learning languages means developing empathy, opening up to different perspectives and describing things with a code (language) different from the one we are used to, and this trains the mind to understand the other.As a student of French and Italian, I found it interesting to see what Marco had to say about the role language and culture plays in his fiction writing, and also how he was inspired by different writers of varying origins. I also really enjoyed getting to find out more about one of my tutors, and would love to see what other exciting things my tutors and lecturers get up to! Ione GildroyIone Gildroy is going into the final year of our French and Italian MA Hons programme. She has recently returned from her year abroad, studying in Verona and completing a journalism internship in Paris. She is a Student Ambassador for the University of Edinburgh and has written extensively for The Student, Europe's oldest student newspaper.Marco Palone is a Language Assistant in Italian Studies at Edinburgh. His post is the only one of its kind sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Scotland.Are you interested in studying with us?Whether you're a complete beginner or have studied the language before, you can take Italian as a single honours programme, or jointly with one of several other European languages or humanities subjects. We also teach Italian at postgraduate level, including courses on the interdisciplinary masters programmes Comparative Literature and Intermediality. Find out more about Italian at Edinburgh Publication date 05 Aug, 2024
HTML HTML By Ione Gildroy, Final year French and Italian MA Hons student, Student Ambassador and journalist Although I was taught by Italian tutor Marco Palone in my first year studying Italian at Edinburgh, I didn’t know that alongside his busy teaching schedule Marco also writes science fiction novels.As an avid reader and someone who enjoys science fiction, I was excited to find this out, and to get the chance to speak to Marco about his work, especially as he had just won the Trofeo Cassiopea (Cassiopeia Trophy) for Italian language science fiction for his book Progetto Ganimede, the first novel in his Bharatmata Trilogy.How did it feel to win the award? Image Marco receiving the Trofeo Cassiopea at the Italian science fiction convention DeepCon in March 2024 It was a great surprise. If you consult the Cassiopea Trophy website, you can see in the list of winners that there are some of the most important Italian science fiction writers, including Dario Tonani and Francesco Verso, whose works have been translated in many languages. Being on this list and being associated with the most famous Italian science fiction authors was an honour. I am very grateful to those who organised the prize which allows emerging writers to get noticed.What inspired you to write 'Progetto Ganimede'?The inspiration for Progetto Ganimede was born many years ago. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which the largest ethnic groups are Asian: Indian and Chinese. This is because it is not taken for granted that the future will resemble Western civilisation. I believe that the Star Trek model of the future that seems like a continuation of American history in space is outdated. The core of Progetto Ganimede's inspiration was the Indian epic, The Mahabharata, and the story of Prince Yudhistirah with his reflection on violence, which still seems very current to me today, in fact it gives shivers for how current it is. In taking inspiration from India to imagine the future, I was inspired by an author of Scottish origins, who I read after having already conceived the first ideas of Progetto Ganimede; Ian McDonald, in particular his River of Gods and Cyberabad days. How long have you been writing fiction for? Do you plan to write/are you writing more books? My first publication was Il Silenzio dei Sogni in 2010, a collection of short stories, of various inspirations but with the surreal element in common. I recently revised and added to this collection, added new stories and republished it with a new title: La donna senza collo. I have also written another collection of short stories, this time all science fiction, set in Progetto Ganimede’s narrative universe. And, in the last month, two years after Progetto Ganimede came out, I’ve published the second volume of the Bharatmata Trilogy: Oltre la Rinascita. What role does Italian culture and language play in your sci-fi writing, and how do you incorporate these elements into your storytelling? Progetto Ganimede's epigraph is a quotation from Ti con zero by Italo Calvino, an author I admire who continues to teach me a lot. The quote's idea is that we ourselves build the image of the perfect prison, because in our mind the imagined prison is more powerful than the real one, which instead may be imperfect and may have weaknesses that the abstract idea of prison has not. The prison-fortress represents a reality that seems too incomprehensible and indecipherable to us, where our problems seem perfectly insoluble and of which we feel like victims. Apart from this, Italian culture is deliberately represented in the novel as a minority: the protagonist is of distant Italian origins but he is isolated in a world dominated by Asia. My study of narratology and classical philology has influenced my writing, some images are inspired by the ancient Greek novel, in particular the Ethiopian Stories by Heliodorus. Language teaching (Italian here in Edinburgh and classical languages in Italy) has influenced me because learning languages means developing empathy, opening up to different perspectives and describing things with a code (language) different from the one we are used to, and this trains the mind to understand the other.As a student of French and Italian, I found it interesting to see what Marco had to say about the role language and culture plays in his fiction writing, and also how he was inspired by different writers of varying origins. I also really enjoyed getting to find out more about one of my tutors, and would love to see what other exciting things my tutors and lecturers get up to! Ione GildroyIone Gildroy is going into the final year of our French and Italian MA Hons programme. She has recently returned from her year abroad, studying in Verona and completing a journalism internship in Paris. She is a Student Ambassador for the University of Edinburgh and has written extensively for The Student, Europe's oldest student newspaper.Marco Palone is a Language Assistant in Italian Studies at Edinburgh. His post is the only one of its kind sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Scotland.Are you interested in studying with us?Whether you're a complete beginner or have studied the language before, you can take Italian as a single honours programme, or jointly with one of several other European languages or humanities subjects. We also teach Italian at postgraduate level, including courses on the interdisciplinary masters programmes Comparative Literature and Intermediality. Find out more about Italian at Edinburgh
HTML By Ione Gildroy, Final year French and Italian MA Hons student, Student Ambassador and journalist