Two gentlemen of Verona
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A Veronese street games festival has recognised the work of two Scottish authors; Iain M. Banks and Ewan Morrison whose work uses the theme of games to explore identities. |
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The ‘Tocatì’ festival celebrates street games and the traditional culture evolving from them, extending into areas like music, dance and literature.
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Scotland was selected by the Veronese as this year’s special guest country. The mediaeval city of Verona- where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet- hosted Highland games, Scottish country dancing and recognised writers inspired by games |
Games and literature
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The festival welcomed Iain M. Banks, whose science fiction novel The Player of Games features a system of society and government entirely based on an elaborate strategy game and Scotland on Sunday columnist and author Ewan Morrison, whose work explores post modern love via games and role playing. |
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They were joined by Scottish Arts Council Literature Officer Aly Barr and Professor Carla Sassi, Associate Professor of English literature at the University of Verona, in a series of meetings and conferences exploring ideas linking the construction of stories to the construction of games.
As the Tocati festival’s philosophy states: ‘Knowing how to tell stories is knowing how to play and knowing this is already a story’. |