Piccola enciclopedia degli alieni

Micol Beltramini, who is already well known for her 101 cose da fare a Milano almeno una volta nella vita, goes straight to the point: “Wouldn’t it be depressing to die thinking we’re the only form of life in the universe?” But that’s the only way we can really start exploring distant galaxies. Through this eclectic author’s humour and precision in this “little encyclopaedia of aliens” and the sharp pencil of Diego Zucchi, the illustrator, we discover life forms that for some people are simply figments of the imagination, while for others they are almost sure to be real. And we’re not just talking of Martians or of Spielberg’s celebrated extra-terrestrial on film: these are clear classifications, ranging from the furry beings spotted in California in the 1970s and ’80s, to muscular Eternians like He-Man, through to the Vulcans in Star Trek and organisms that acquire the forms and habits of plants. It might even seem likely that we’ll bump into some of these beings made of light – not to be confused with angels – but perhaps not everyone knows that the Gremlins, adorable but sometimes dangerous pups, originally come from the planet Enz. And then, of course, there is the irrepressible George Lucas with his truly immense knowledge of these fabulous creatures. In his Star Wars we find two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, the wicked Darth Vader, a cyborg made up of biological and mechanical elements, and the wise master Yoda, whose teachings have given courage to entire generations of earthlings because ultimately, even though we are light years away, what we really need to do is get to know each other better. Piccola enciclopedia degli alieni Micol Beltramini, 24Ore Cultura, 2017