*They're a fantascienza publisher.
*Well, we'll just have to pray – like with all science fiction publishers, I guess.
(...)
Before talking about science fiction and Urania, I would like you to introduce yourself: who is Giuseppe Lippi?
He is a professional of escape. Where is it? In the next worlds. How long? Always. Love things that are not like those that really exist ...
Urania is the Mondadori series of which you are curator since 1990 and of which you have also recently written an interesting history ( Il futuro al gola , published by Profondo Rosso). What does Urania represent for the Italian imagination? What really is this publication for the Italians monthly (with various satellite series) that we see arriving on time at newsstands from 1952?
It's a thousand and one nights. Indeed, the 1,650 nights, plus another hundred titles issued in the daughter collections. It does not foresee the future but it tastes it, it is not yet sold in space but it will arrive in e-book. It is "the time machine that has never stopped".
What is the average day of the curator of Urania? What is the most demanding part of the job and which is the most pleasant for you?
Since you ask me such an intimate question, I have to say that since January 2018 Urania no longer has a curator but an editorial manager, a responsible Director, an editor and an "advisor" that would be me: a quadrumvirate who will endeavor to necklaces facing the problems and challenges that arise today; and this is the first time this has happened since 1952.
My colleagues do not know, but the typical day of the consultant is characterized by the fact that he gets up in the morning and does not go to the office. He works at home, reads, looks at the post office, scrolls through the latest news in the newspapers and the specialized press, and then dedicates himself to the most urgent tasks, which can be decided on a new title to be acquired, write a back cover, send an 'illustrator, the very good Franco Brambilla, et cetera.
The most grateful of these activities is that of writing introductions, making editorials, etc., which are naturally only possible based on the needs of the editorial staff and the available space. But for a long time my work is not just about Urania: I deal a lot with the Oscars and in particular with the Draghi cards, which are a real library of fantastic fiction generated by the famous paperbacks. We are developing it with a meticulous care.
(...)
The science fiction written in Italy for years has seen a steady decline of readers: is it a trend that is continuing or do you think there are signs of change?
I do not have an unfailing yardstick, but I would say that for the Italians new doors are opening. See the initiatives of specialized publishing houses such as Zona 42 or, in Mondadori, the upcoming Oscars releases that will present the new Dario Tonani novel set to Mondo9 at the beginning of the summer.
