The Transgressionists and Other Disquieting Works: Five Tales of Weird Fiction

by Giorgio De Maria, Ramon Glazov (translator)

Before an untimely mental breakdown cut short his two-decade career, Giorgio De Maria distinguished himself as one of Italy's most unique and eccentric weird fiction masters. With a background in the post-war literary culture of Turin -- Italy's urbane but eerie "city of black magic" -- De Maria drew inspiration from the Turinese underbelly of occultism, secret societies and radical politics. His writing coincided with the decade of terrorist violence known to Italians as the Years of Lead; the outcome was a weird fiction suffused with panic, rage, trauma, paranoia and meditations on antisocial hubris. In 1978, he told an interviewer: "...I think that the dimension of the fantastic, as much as this may seem paradoxical, is the most fitting one to express a reality as complex as ours today." 

De Maria's debut novel, The Transgressionists (1968) portrays a cell of malicious telepaths who meet in the cafés and jazz clubs of 1960s Turin to plot world domination. After experiencing the worst of their power, an embittered office clerk resolves to join them and prove himself worthy to share in their villainy. He cultivates twisted mindfulness techniques to awaken his inner sociopath. He fights off predatory phantoms that seem maddeningly drawn to him. He prepares for the dangerous "Great Leap" which will make him into a fully-fledged Transgressionist. But could his megalomania strain relations with his fiancee? Will he sacrifice love in his quest for omnipotence?

The other works in this volume are no less surreal and startling. The Secret Death of Joseph Dzhugashvili (1976) gives us a nightmarish fantasy Soviet Union, where a dissident poet finds himself trapped in a psychological experiment conducted by Stalin himself. In "The End of Everydayism," a group of futuristic artists begin using corpses as a medium -- with violent, unforeseen results. The antihero of "General Trebisonda" is a possibly insane commander who prepares for a war crime in an eerily deserted fortress. 

Available in English for the first time, this collection contains two novellas, two short stories and a dystopian teleplay, The Appeal, which the post-cyberpunk novelist Andrea Vaccaro has lauded as "worthy of the best episodes of Black Mirror." Meanwhile, an introduction by translator Ramon Glazov offers a detailed account of De Maria's background, creative context and thoroughly unusual life.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Giorgio De Maria (1924–2009) was an Italian writer, playwright, and musician, best known for his eerie and enigmatic novel The Twenty Days of Turin. Born in Turin, Italy, De Maria initially pursued studies in music before transitioning to writing. His literary career began in the post-war period, a time when Italian literature was grappling with the traumas of fascism and war, and De Maria’s works reflect this dark, introspective tone.

De Maria was associated with the Gruppo 63, an avant-garde literary movement in Italy that sought to challenge conventional narrative forms and experiment with new literary techniques. His early works, including essays and short stories, were published in various Italian literary magazines, establishing him as a distinctive voice in the Italian literary scene.

However, it was his 1977 novel Le venti giornate di Torino (The Twenty Days of Turin) that would become his most famous work, though it went largely unnoticed at the time of its publication. The novel is a chilling and surreal exploration of paranoia, collective memory, and the impact of authoritarianism on society, set in a fictionalized version of De Maria’s hometown of Turin. The book remained obscure for decades but gained a cult following after its translation into English in 2016, introducing De Maria’s work to a broader audience.

Beyond writing, De Maria was a talented musician and was involved in the Turin cultural scene, collaborating with various artists and intellectuals. Despite his contributions, De Maria largely lived in obscurity, and his later years were marked by a withdrawal from public life. He passed away in 2009, leaving behind a legacy that has been increasingly recognized for its haunting relevance to contemporary issues.

Reviews

[inciminci · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Transgressionists and Other Disquieting Works: Five Tales of Weird Fiction didn't work for me. The translator Ramon Glazov's introduction was what helped me make sense of these stories most of the time and, that introduction was unfortunately what I enjoyed reading most in this book. I wasn't always able to identify the weird and unsettling elements stated in the blurbs either, so I read these stories without real engagement. Too bad, really, I was so sure that I'd love a book which uses the word "phantasmagoria" as often as De Maria does, but that wasn't the case.
However, no matter how little I was able to enjoy this, I'm still in love with the cover.

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first comment is this: Giorgio De Maria deserves a wide audience. It is a travesty that he is almost forgotten.

I was shaken when I read the first novella, "The Transgressionists." The story may seem far-fetched, but it is not. A bunch of people with almost telepathic powers seeking to infiltrate and control the world may seem fantastic. However, when you think about this, you will realize that many people seek to control our minds through the sheer force of their personalities. When such people do so almost in silence, it becomes altogether frightening. And it happens in broad daylight.

The second story tells the tale of a psychological experiment by Stalin on a poet.

The third is about a group of artists who use corpses as art objects. The fourth is of a crazy General, and the fifth is a teleplay.

The stories play upon the horrors of the human mind, almost evil experiments, and psychological games. The stories are disturbing because they live within the realm of plausibility.

I read some of the stories two times, and they stay with me. Read the stories. Buy the book.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly, this didn't work at all for me. This has that "not that many people knew who he was except the literary cognoscenti, AND he had mental issues, AND I just discovered him so it must be under-appreciated yet outstanding work" aura to its PR. Or maybe I just don't share the amazement.
I kinda sorta maybe enjoyed his 'The Twenty Days of Turin', but definitely more so than this collection, and by quite a lot. Since the overall feel was the same but with noticeably less plot elements, anyone who cares can just check my review for that novel. Apologies for the style of it, I have since gone to more grammatically correct, even if no less interesting, review formatting.

[Lutz Barz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given that era, muso and playwright one of which is in this book and is absurd its plausible given it is the idiot box as it was known back then where this contest occurs. The main novel instead of following what most in this fantasy genre attempt De Maria takes off on a different course. It is not all transcendental bliss or the occult of that time that was reemerging. He steers a surprising different course.

[Bill Hsu]

I found this to be breezy and relatively entertaining, but for some reason couldn't get into it.