§1[ENG] - REX in Space: The Genesis of the Space Opera, which began ten years ago.

 

06.23.2023
REX in Space: The Genesis of the Space Opera, which began ten years ago.

It was Ferragosto, August 15, 2014, in Italy, a public holiday and a day when people start thinking about the upcoming September. It was a warm day, but not sweltering. I still remember how Rex and his universe materialized. It was morning, and I was smoking a cigarette on the balcony, looking down at the empty street. A small road in a medium-sized city. I glanced at the balcony across from mine. It was dilapidated, and it still is, transmitting a sense of neglect and decay. Unfortunately, it's a common sight in Southern Italy. I always try to lighten up the ugliness and find irony to be an important form of resilience.

I started imagining that neglected balcony in a different context, on another planet, perhaps in the future, serving an important, if not unique, function. A presidential balcony from which a fantasy political speech could be given, no, a royal balcony that, in its simplicity, conveyed a strong message of the humility of power.

A power that forced itself to express from a small stage, actually, a tiny one, just big enough to accommodate one person uncomfortably. I began thinking about how a royal balcony could be, and then the Savoia family came to mind. In Turin, they had long connecting palaces from which they observed the square without appearing in it.

It seemed like a good idea to imagine that balcony as an extension of a very long corridor structure that spread throughout the entire planetary capital in an almost capillary manner. And this planet needed a name.A long corridor has significant echoes, I thought, especially in anticipation of using that balcony of humility. It couldn't be traversed by just any real person; they wouldn't have endured the length and weight of that situation. So, I started thinking about the main character of the scene.

Rex made his appearance, or rather emerged from the shadow of the corridor, with a slow but determined pace. It was his footsteps that brought him into my writer's imagination. There was a strong sun outside and a crowd waiting for the speech announced just the day before by Rex Rey—practically the entire planetary aristocracy.

Now, the planet needed a name, as well as other planets as celestial companions. While I was contemplating the diverse collection of planets, Rex had reached the end of the corridor and stood in front of the access door. But he didn't come out yet. Perhaps he was reviewing the key points of his speech? Possible, but also predictable and banal, and he would have already done it while traversing the kilometer-long corridor. I put myself in his shoes and borrowed his eyes: I looked to his left and understood everything. A large monitor, visible only to members of the royal lineage, was brightly active, displaying a large continuous scrolling counter at the top. The number indicated a multi-billion total and was steadily growing, albeit by a few units, like drops forming an ocean. At the top of the counter, there was a caption in the common galactic language:

Victims of the ruling Rey dynasty of the planet Kliustra. To date: 500 years. King Rey made it.

Rey was fixated on that giant screen, perhaps to put an end to his past? I asked myself the same question but had to wait to hear his speech to the planet, which was naturally broadcasted live throughout the galaxy…

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