Barbara Sanguineti works at AIST, the Associazione Italiana Studi Tolkieniani (Italian Association Tolkien Study), and shared with the SFFN some of the latest news from Tolkien events’ in Italy. And because we love the Professor, this is the kind of news we like to share with you all.
“The beginning of 2017 has seen a very important initiative for AIST and
for the diffusion of Tolkien’s works. A cycle of eight weekly episodes entitled “Tolkien: an unexpected journey” was broadcast by RAI Radio3 inside the transmission ‘Pantheon’. The episodes were focused on the most relevant aspects of the Professor’s works, and the authors of the radio programme (L. Lipperini e A. Stalteri) aimed to provide a wide coverage of works and themes, with the ambitious proposal to match a fairly divulgative approach with an in-depth perspective on the elements that made Tolkien’s Legendarium unique, such as ‘meditatio mortis’ or the most accurate precision he put into devising his imaginary universe. Together with other guests (like anglist P. Boitani, illustrator T. Nasmith, writer M. Murgia as well as many Tolkien-inspired musicians), AIST has been a recurring, pivotal presence along all the eight episodes, in the persons of Roberto Arduini (journalist and AIST president), Federico Guglielmi (member of the Wu Ming writers’ collective) and Saverio Simonelli (journalist and translator). The programme lasted from 7th January to 25th February, and the main topics treated were: the cultural and linguistic roots of Tolkien’s universe, the fictional languages created by the Professor, his
representation of Good (heroes) and Evil, the female characters, the detailed description of his secondary world, and the vast influence Tolkien’s books have had on subsequent culture – both popular and high.”
