If On A Winter's Night A Traveller

The way If On A Winter's Night A Traveler is written is really interesting. The author uses second person throughout the book, and the book is divided into two parts: a part that talks about the story of If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, another part is where Calvino talks to the readers about what he/she will be reading for the next chapter. Interestingly enough, the second part is very detail-oriented: Calvino puts quite a lot of concentration on the minor things about the readers, the readers physical state, their psychological activities, and their interpretation of the literature.

Calvino talks about how he wants his readers to be disinterested in the book and not to purposely find a meaning during the course of reading. As a writer like him that have conversation in the book with the readers and instruct the readers are what to read and how to read, having that kind of readers is the optimal choice.

The book also has a lot of pauses and discontinuous thoughts. It is almost like Calvino is purposely making his readers to lose interest in reading about the story of the book. The narrator's voice tends to interrupt in the middle of a thread of thought or a scenario.

As a believer of the philosophy of "nothing matters in life", Calvino did not give the book a very prominent meaning. Instead, his beliefs are scattered, and be traced by reading through the novel and his ideologies are buried in between the lines.

Invisible Cities

The book Invisible Cities involves two characters, the Tartar emperor Kublai Khan and the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo. The book is consists of descriptions of different cities that Marco Polo witnessed during his trip.

The book is consists of description of different cities. Each chapter describes a different city. Moreover, a different mentality and way of living.  Marco Polo divides the cities into several categories, cities and memory, cities and desires, cities and signs, thin cities, trading cities, cities and eyes, cities and names, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, continuous cities and hidden cities.

An example of the Cities and Memory will be Zaira, city of high bastions. When Marco Polo describes the city, he told Khan that he can go into very specific, concrete details of the cities. This is one of the features of cities and memory, that the traveller will remember every single details of the city. The city is specific, that reflects its current state, but there is no history of the city that can be told. However, the history can be spotted, embedded in the details of the city.

An example of the Cities and Signs will be Tamara. The difference of this city is that the symbols it has means a different things than what it appears. When the traveller visits Tamara, he will only remember Tamara the way the city defines herself, by all the symbols that the city contains.

Some say that The Invisibles Cities is seemingly a traveling journal of Marco Polo, but it actually is a documentary of different mentality that people possess towards life.

Pereira Declares

            Antonio Tabucchi’s Pereira Declares is another unconventional novel that has many postmodernist features throughout. Pereira Declares takes place in fascist Portugal and is the story of a melancholy, overweight journalist for the culture section of a start-up evening newspaper. The novel reflects on the power of literature and conformity, using ironic characters and historical events to show the consequences of freedom. Tabucchi also questions “the truth” in a novel that begins and ends with the same problem, death. It is a fictional account of historical events. In other words it is a meta-fictional novel, fiction that speaks to reality.

            A major theme in the story is the concept of “the truth.” According to postmodernists, there is no central truth to anything, due to the infinite amount of perceptions that are made associated with the object. Early in the book, Pereira recalls a quote from his uncle. He says, “Philosophy appears to concern itself only with the truth, but perhaps expresses only fantasies, while literature appears to concern itself only with fantasies, but perhaps it expresses the truth” (Tabucchi 17).

            Immediately there is irony in this statement. According to Webster’s Dictionary the definition of philosophy is, “the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.”  The definition of literature is, “writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features as poetry, novels, etc.” The use of logic and reason to investigate “the truth” are useless. Instead, one must investigate using ideas, form, and art. According to Pereira’s uncle, the search for truth only ends up in becoming lost in fantasies. However, while in the realm of fantasy, one is able to find the truth. 

Henry IV

Henry IV delves into the idea of madness and the intrinsic nature of madness. Pirandello was surrounded by madness, as his wife needed to be sent to an asylum in order for their children’s safety. This means that the subject matter is quite personal to Pirandello and I believe he is quite well-versed on the subject.

            Henry choses to appear insane but isn’t really isn’t. In fact he had faking it for several years. Whether this can be considered insanity is where the ambiguous nature of madness is probed. Henry goes onto claim that he actual prefers insanity to sanity. “I preferred to stay crazy having found everything here ready and willing for this new delight of sorts” (Pirandello,132-133). His enjoyment is further discussed as he believes being aware of playing a madman has made him more self-aware and allows him to feel more control. This whole flirtation with the idea of madness is what makes Pirandello genius. It’s nearly impossible to know for sure whether Henry is insane merely because of semantics. 

Iguana

I found Ortese’s novel The Iguana a little too absurd for my taste. It seemed as if by delving into the fantastic that it loses its artistic merit. It seems too convoluted to be creative. While the language and the imagery are amazing, it lacks a cohesive story and leaves me nonplus.

Where the fantastic does a good job is it allows itself to have freedom of choice. Yet, that isn’t necessarily a good characteristic to embody if there is not an obvious underlying theme. The courtship of an Iguana can be seen symbolically but it seems to me that this kind of symbolism allows for ridiculous interpretations. This is purely because it lacks the stability of being a true because this type of symbolism is based on largely impossible actions. To relate the impossible to the possible does make us question reality, in the same way that one conducts and experiment. However there isn’t a control like there is in science, only absurdity.

Fontamara

Fontamara by Ignazio Salone is a create work of historic fiction. What makes it so amazing is that it presents the struggle of an entire population that probably never existed but can be seen in parallel to similar actions found throughout Mussolini’s reign. Not only can be applied to the specific era and location of its setting, but can be used as a voice against oppression of the lower class in any society.

            The cafonis found in Fontamara can be seen as a representation of all oppressed lower class. They not only lack the physical resources of the upper class, but are incapable of changing this imbalance due to their inability to gain an education. This is where the heart of oppression lies, not in control of materials or wealth but in control of the spirits of the oppressed. The cafonis are constantly incapable of getting fair wages because they do not have the mental wit that would be required to do so. Institutionally they are taken advantage of as well, mainly due to their lack of knowing the dominant languages in their country.

Zeno's Conscience

Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo is quite the genius piece of literature. It examines the nature of self-reflection and psychoanalysis by guising itself as the journals of the titular character, Zeno, going through psychoanalysis in an attempt to quit smoking. By pretending to be a journal, we are given a somewhat limited and un-trustworthy narrator who lies quite a bit to his own journal. This is the narrative equivalent of one lying to oneself. This lies are what makes this novel stand out as they examine the nature of how we tend to view ourselves.

            The lies are not necessarily lies, but rather contradictions. But contradictions require at least one of the statements to be false in order for it to be logically sound. Therefore every contradiction implies a lie. Zeno’s recollections are filled to the brim with contradictions so it cannot be a mistake by the author. Svevo’s intentional insertion of the lies means that they have some value to them. Each of the lies is typically done out of shame on the part of Zeno. He regularly lies almost in an attempt to overcome his regret. This encompasses the important concept found within in Freudian psychoanalysis called psychological repression. This is when and individual attempts to un-consciously hide and forget painful memories, and Zeno must be doing this un-consciously as he has no real reason to lie to a journal. The entire book is critical of psychoanalysis but isn’t necessarily in disagreement with it. Zeno clearly voices his distaste for it early on the book when he reads about it calling it boring yet simple (Svevo, 5). Though Zeno’s skepticism isn’t necessarily shared by Svevo and could in fact be Svevo critiquing the distrust of psychoanalysis.