Pleasue

After reading most of Gabriele d’Annunizo’s book, Pleasure, I have become more familiar with the main character, Andrea Sperelli.  Art and Women are two of his greatest passions.  Andrea appears to be a lady’s man as is evident by his infatuation with one of his lovers, Elena.  In the first chapter, Andrea illustrates impatience while eagerly waiting for Elena.  After waiting a brief period of time he starts to worry she will not show resulting in a mini panic attack.  “She was not coming! And she was not coming!” (d’Annunizo 18).  In the following chapters, which are a flashback of their relationship, Andrea reveals an obsessive quality towards Elena.  In only their second encounter, Andrea confesses his love or Elena. He says, “I seem to have loved you for I don’t know how long.  The one, incessant thought of you, is now the life of my life” (72).  Andrea lays all his cards on the table in hopes Elena feels the same way about him.  Elena likes being chased and eventually succumbs to her desires for Andrea.

Andrea and Elena both desire each other for purposes of pleasure and pleasure alone.  I feel that they have confused love for lust.  “No; you did not love me, you do not love me!” (27). Having been dependent on her, he is now able to move on and realizes he no longer needs Elena in his life.  This results in the character development of Andrea. 

The use of flashbacks in this book keeps the reader intrigued. The flashback provides a lens into past events and helps develop these two characters.  Andrea seems desperate for love.  Although his relationship with Elena was not necessarily love, he is hopeful his encounter with Maria will be different.  

Artemisia

The book Artemesia tells a story of a friendship between two women, Artemesia's life as a female artist, her relationship with her painter father and other inner struggles of Artemesia. 

One of the scene in the book really captured my attention. Cecilia, Artemesia's best friend, had such a different family background than Artemesia. Artemesia came to Cecilia's high window to visit her. They were such good friends until this one visit, when they have become older, Artemesia realized how different they are, in terms of background composites. Artemesia was observing Cecilia, and thought to herself that Cecilia has a "distant, precious fragility", given that Cecilia was born in a cage with maidservants. Artemesia had become aware of "the wide gulf that inexorably separated her" from Cecilia. Cecilia's image ignited the fire of self-conciousness and jealousy in Artemesia's heart. Artemesia, a poor girl with limited freedom, inevitably started feeling bitter. She secretly put musk-scented oil in her hair and dressed up nicely before the visit. She started boasting.  She talked about her uncle Cosimo, with exaggeration, that he sent her "boxes of sweets and sherbets and Spanish wines and gold chains". She also talked about how she learned how to paint, and her father was teaching her, who "meet the most important people". Cecilia didn't say a word, she only sighed. That sigh immediately attracted the attention of the nursemaids that came caring for her. Artemesia shouted farewell to Cecilia, and she leaped down the road with tears in her eyes. "She tore the dress she had mended for her visit to Cecilia and never wore it again." She realized how hard she tried, to top Cecilia in life, but she realized that dressing herself up and boasting about her uncle did not fill in the empty whole in her heart, but only left with her the feeling of emptiness and sadness. Comparing to Cecilia, she had to boast to feel less miserable about herself, while Cecilia was being taken care of all the time. Sarcastically, Cecilia died later in text. To summarize from a distance, Cecilia's life was not all that admirable. She was caged, weak, lonely and only had a short life. But at the moment, to Artemesia, she is that elegant lady who belonged to a completely different, but much classier life than her own. 

Jealousy left its trace on the canvas of the relationship between the two girls. Given that the author is a female, I can resonate pretty well with the jealousy girls have when their best friends are not on the same platform as her. It is very real, and very breathable. 

Pereira Declares

Pereira Declares is a story about a journalist's journey for how he goes about writing his articles for the culture page he is the editor for during a time period where parts of Europe are under a regime. Throughout the book, Pereira talks about what makes a good article and what makes literature. He hires an assistant Monteiro Rossi to help write obituaries for him, however, in Pereira's view Monteiro Rossi cannot write. Pereira declares that his work is unpublishable. Pereria states, "when you write an obiturary you are essentially making a critical assessment, a portrait of the man and his work, what you have written is completely unusable, Lorca's death is still wrapped in mystery and what if things didn't happen as you say they did?" ( Tabucchi 22). To write is to tell the truth and reveal the facts for how someone died, in this instance since it is an obiturary. Pereria is saying that Monteiro did just the opposite and inserted his personal opinion into the article and wrote it like a piece of literature that can be fictional. In literature you can rely on the figment of your imagination and make an individual who you want them to be, but in an article you have to present them however the facts make them look. This book becomes a story about how to write literature and what it means to be a writer. The reader sees Pereria live his daily routine as a writer and it does become boring and a slow paced book, but it is a view into this lifestyle that readers do not get to see ordinarily.  Pereria says, "literature appears to only concern itself with fantasies, but perhaps it expresses the truth," (18). Literature develops from the truth. It has to be based of reality just like a newspaper article, however, with literature a writer has more freedom to express him or herself. This is what I believe this book to be about. It is about the freedom of expression and living in a regime. The reader sees how Pereria lives it and who he meets along the way. No matter who he meets or the events that occur it always comes down to the writing and how he can retell the event. It's about how to find the truth in something you are recounting.

Pereira Declares

The most interesting part of the book, as the title indicates, is that the author inserted a lot of "Pereira declares" in the text. This phrase, judging from its surface meaning, expressed a sense of certainty. It is a declaration, which is by definition "a formal or explicit statement or announcement". This phrase adds additional seriousness to Pereira's decisions and thoughts.

To better understand this book, it is very important to understand the historical background of the book. The setting of the story is in 1938, during Salazar's dictatorship. Salazar is a right-wing politician. Even though Samuel Hoare, the author of Ambassador on Special Mission commented Salazar as someone who “ 'detested Hitler and all his works' ” and "that his corporative state was fundamentally different from Nazism and Fascism" (Wikipedia), it is not necessarily the case.  During the world war II, Salazar not only remained neutral, but also admitted the fascism in Spain. Therefore, in the book, Monteiro Rossi, an anti-fascist and leftist, was against the mainstream mentality. 

The main character, Pereira, is a journalist who worked for the Lisboa, "a Lisbon newspaper founded a few months ago, non-political and independent but believe in the soul, that is to say that it has Roman Catholic tendencies". The whole novel started off as Pereira reflecting on death and the resurrection of the body. Then, he came across a thesis written by a philosophy major student Monteiro Rossi, and started contacting him about the cultural column. The cultural column had just been newly added to The Lisboa, and Pereira was the only one who was in charge of the column.

The novel Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi is a complex story about a Portuguese journalist named Pereira.  The time period in which this novel was written in critical to understand the relationships and occurrences within the story.  Tabucchi uses Pereira's relationships to tell the story of that time period.  There is a young man whom he hires as an assistant who needs help hiding his cousin.  His cousin is against the rising dictatorship in Portugal. Pereira's wife also passed away two years ago, and he speaks to his wife's photograph.  He sees a doctor for his obesity, and he never publishes anything of importance.  Pereira's mundane lifestyle and loneliness is an interesting lens to view this time period through.
The theme of death is an interesting theme in this novel.  Pereira declares the he is a devout Catholic, but he struggles with the concept of the Resurrection.  He also hires his assistant to write obituaries for famous authors who have not yet passed away.  Pereira also cannot let his dead wife go.  He talks to her photograph daily, and cannot seem to move on.  This obsession with death is mentioned several times throughout the novel, but it is difficult to understand why Tabucchi continually mentions it. Perhaps, Tabucchi sees death as having a central role in that time period, or maybe he himself struggled with the idea of death.  The novel ends with the death of an innocent man, who is murdered by corrupt officials.  The theme of death builds up into this intense final scene, after which Pereira finally declares something of note.
This is a short novel that makes a profound statement about the corruption and sadness that was part of life in Portugal in the early 1900s.  Although Pereira is a weak character, Tabucchi gives him strength, by the end of the novel, to be a declaring voice against the dictatorships of that time.

The Moon and the Bonfires

The Moon and the Bonfires, a novel by Cesare Pavese is difficult to analyze because every sentence has an underlying meaning that cannot be found in the text, but it is necessary to read between the lines - a task that is not always easy. In the introduction we learn the Pavese committed suicide shortly after this novel was published, and so throughout my process of reading the book, I tried to think to myself, "Does any of this hint towards his impending suicide?" The book focuses around the past, and the hopeless present. Pavese's narrator paints a picture of a past that, while at times harsh and unpredictable, was also filled with much joy that may never be recovered. Even though the past was troublesome, for the narrator, referred to by some as Eel, it was home. After living in America for ten years, Eel realizes that he will never be able to feel at home in such a foreign place. Eel does not like America at all, and portrays it as an uninhabitable, unwelcoming wasteland filled with murderers who kill women because they feel swallowed up in the sheer mass and loneliness of the country, and commit crimes simply to be noticed once more.

After returning to his home, Eel finds that it was not what he expected. Except for his old friend Nuto, all of the people who he expected to recognize and welcome him back with open arms were dead. None of them lived happy lives after he left, and none of their lives ended peacefully. While back home, Eel realizes that poverty leads people to be cruel, as a result of how hopeless they have become. The old, especially, become cruel with the loss of control over their own lives. They are stuck in misery, because they know their pasts can never be found again, and so they are ignored, and left to suffer on their own. Throughout the novel we see that money and sexual arousal are two of the only things that are universal, although they both lead to sin. Eel has returned to Italy in search of a home that he never had, and never will have. He has no family, no home, no father or mother that he knows of. He is, as Kuto says, "His own father." Eel has created a life for himself, but he is a wanderer, and his inability to adapt to life in America, and his inability to adjust to living in the village again, has destined him for a life of someone who will never be able to plant his roots anywhere. It seems that Pavese's depression can be seen in the book's hopelessness for the past and the future. With all the death and unhappiness, it seems that Pavese believed that the only certainties in life were suffering, and then death.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Analysis

            If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is the second work by Italo Calvino interpreted this semester. This metanovel is similar to Invisible Cities in message but the structure is much different. Much like in Invisible Cities Calvino expresses an umbrella like meaningless covering human life. He also questions the written word and determines that once he, as the author, puts words on a page he loses control over their meaning. This is because there is no single meaning to any object, especially words/language. There is an infinite amount of perceptions that will be drawn from his words no matter how hard he tries to specify its intended meaning.

            A passage that really stands out is found on page 51, or the tenth page of chapter three, the professor is the character speaking. He say, “We are confined in this closet…The university expands and we contract… We are the poor stepchild of living language…If Crimmerian can still be considered a living language. But this is precisely its Value! The fact that it is a modern language and a dead language at the same time… A privileged position, even if nobody realizes…” (Calvino 51).

            I found this passage to be one of significance because it is a section where Calvino or the narrator discusses language, a message very prevalent of both his studied works. He is discussing the dying language of Crimmerian but ironically comes to the conclusion that the death of the language is an underlying blessing. The fact that the Crimmerian language is modern is a blessing because due to its modernity, humans have not had enough time to allow the infinite amount of perceptions reveals the overall meaningless of the language. Additionally, because it is a dying language, Crimmerian is helping humanity because it will die before it’s meaning is contaminated by human perception.

If on a winter’s night a traveler

If on a winter’s night a traveler is a novel written by Italo Calvino.  This novel is absolutely the most outrageous and confusing book I have ever read.  Italo Calvino is an author of post-modernism writing, a style that contains a lack of centrality.  This is apparent throughout the novel.  Right out of the gate he begins the book by saying, “You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler” (Calvino 1). It appears as an introduction to Calvino’s book but it is in fact the beginning of the story.  Calvino writes it in such a way so that the reader is actually character within the story.  He continuously points out to the reader that they are reading his book as the plot develops.  This style of writing tends to be frustrating and puzzling the reader.  In doing this, I found it difficult to enjoy the story.

            “It’s not that you expect anything in particular from this particular book.  You’re the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything” (4).

This passage was very interesting to me.  Calvino implies that whoever is reading his book expects to gain nothing from it, forcing his beliefs of Nihilism upon the reader. Nihilism, the idea that nothing matters, is Calvino’s interpretation of the world. I would argue his beliefs, as I presume the opposite. I try to acquire something new in everything I do.  Not having expectations would be sad way to live.  

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino is an amazing novel that takes the reader through an adventure unlike any other known in literature.  The beginning of the novel is particularly odd in the sense that it directly addresses the reader in an informal manner.  The beginning of the novel immediately hooked me in because the comments that Calvino makes were strangely similar to the thoughts that were actually running through my mind.  For example, Calvino is suggesting to the reader that in order to completely fulfill the duties of a reader, one must be comfortable.  Calvino takes this to the extreme and is brave enough to ask, “Do you have to pee?” (4).  Although this is a strange opening chapter, it engaged me as a reader and established an author/reader bond that I had never felt while reading a novel up till that point.  Following the initial address to the reader, the novel is organized in a way that alternates chapters.  One after another, we read a chapter following the characters, Reader and Other Reader, and then we read a chapter that contains the beginning section of a novel, but ends just short of the climax. This cyclical organization is interesting in itself, but it also evokes a sense of frustration in the reader because we want to understand the reasoning behind cutting us off from each story.  None of the short stories are related.  In fact, they are each in a setting incredibly diverse from the others.  I enjoyed this novel because Calvino takes the advice of all of our fourth grade English teachers because he “shows” and doesn’t “tell.”  The reader is challenged to interpret the text for him/herself.  What is the value in reading? What type of experience is reading suppose to provide? The Reader’s quest to find the missing novels is symbolic of our quest as readers to find meaning in what we read and understand the entirety of a novel.  

Calvino leaves the reader questioning again

            In Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler the reader is not reading just one novel, but ends up following ten different stories within this larger piece. Each has a different plot, author and style. The author, Calvino, inserts his opinion for how the reader should act and think by interrupting each novel within the larger novel.

            From the first sentence the reader fully emerges into what is written on the page. The opening sentence reads, “You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. Concrete. Dispel every thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door…” (3). Throughout the novel there are many passages similar to this one where the author is speaking to the reader instructing him or her on how to read this book to what to think about what is going on in one of the stories. In this narrative style by not only speaking directly to the reader but by using the second person “you” the reader is not a bystander to what is occurring in this novel, but becomes the protagonist.

            I preferred reading the chapters where Calvino would use the “you” or tell the reader what something means in the novel. Because there were so many different stories to follow I didn’t pay as much attention to what was going on in those, but paid more attention to the parts where Calvino did speak to the reader. After reading Invisible Cities where the description of each city was not as important as the dialogue between Macro and the emperor I went into this novel thinking the same. I became fascinated in my part in the novel and how I should be reading what is going on.

            Calvino says, “Reading is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid, material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present,” (72). There are many comments like this throughout the novel where the written word is this and we, as readers need to see us within whatever this written word may be.

            There is also a quotation on page 109 where Calvino tells the reader that he is writing all these stories because he wants the reader to navigate themselves around and in these stories. A story exists in a certain space that cannot be altered, but a person can see the space differently. Again, it comes down to perspective and who the reader is. He often refers to the two readers reading the same book from the outside, but once they stare at the pages the story becomes two different novels. This is true for all kinds of book. Calvino begins to get at universal truths through his writing and challenges the reader to not look at this novel as a singular piece of work but to look at it as a metaphor or guide for how to read other books.