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. 

If On a Winter's NIghts a Traveler

The novel If on a Winter’s Nights a Traveler is quite unique in the sense that it takes how we as readers view literature. There is little cohesive story but that’s where the brilliance of the book is shown. The most important part of this story is the form of the narrative. The narrator isn’t really explained but what Calvino does is talk to the reader using the word you quite a lot. In the first chapter, the narration tells the reader to get comfortable and describes how the reader should read the book. It almost makes the narrative seem like a living breathing person. I was tempted to describe the narration as a he or she but that wouldn’t be factual. The narration attempts to personify itself and almost leads us to believe it is a person or that it is possibly Calvino himself. It cannot be Calvino however because of the first sentence of the book. “You are about to read Italo Calvino’s new novel” (Calvino,3). This implies that this narrator isn’t Calvino otherwise he would be speaking in third person about himself, which would be grammatically incorrect.

This unusual narration is a fresh take on how we read. In experimenting with a second person narrative Calvino provides insight not only on the effect of doing so, but also forces us to examine how we read books with more traditional narration.

Pereira Declares

Pereira Declares deals with the concept of mentoring and teaching by using a non-traditional form of it. In the novel Pereira seems to be mentor the much younger Rossi by financing him and giving him a chance to become a part of the literary community. Under close examination however, Rossi is seemingly educating Pereira more so than the reverse. Rossi could then be seen as the mentor of Pereira which is quite unusual. Typically the mentor is the older one of the two, the one with the more experience and knowledge but in this case that role belongs to the younger. It could be easier to believe that neither is truly a mentor in the usual understanding of the word. Rather the two mentor each other. In most cases within the teacher student relationship, both gain insight from the others comments. This is clearly what is occurring throughout the novel. Pereira funds the youngster and allows him a chance to write, while Rossi galvanizes Pereira’s political belief and imparts an understanding of the connection between literature and politics. 

Invisible Cities

Invisible Cities is a very difficult read. It is a fictional discussion between Marco Polo and Kublai Kahn on the cities that comprise his empire. The descriptions are almost read like poems, with each city being a part of a larger group of cities. The title of the book is explained while they are engaged in dialogue, Kublai Kahn states “Your cities do not exist. Perhaps they have never existed. It is sure they will never exist again. Why do you amuse yourself with consolatory fables” (Calvino, 59). The whole concept of the book is just Marco Polo describing idealized cities, they are invisible because they do not exist. That doesn’t mean they aren’t important rather it implies that they are something we cannot perceive with our senses, that they have an intrinsic quality deeper than that.

But it draws questions of how he is coming up with these fantastic images of these cities. Kublai asks for him to describe the city of Venice, Marco Polo hometown. He replies “Every time I describe a city, I am saying smoothing about Venice”(Calvino, 86). This means that Marco Polo descriptions are merely based on his unique perspective rather than the accounts of others. The importance of perspective is an idea that Calvino is known to display in his novels so it makes quite a bit of sense he does it here.

The play Six Characters in Search of an Author uses deception and limiting the narrative to question the idea of reality. The novel plays between two contingents, the actors and the characters. The former questions the sanity and validity of the latter constantly throughout the play. The third actor actually states the “They are either insane or charlatans”(Pirandello, 30). This implies a strong lack of faith to their story which hinges on the idea that they are characters inside a novel. This disconnect between the literal characters of the story (which encompasses the actors as well) as to what is really occurring. With the characters unable to understand their reality, the reader is left incapable of having a full understanding of what is truly happening. The end also highlights the deception Pirandello uses throughout the novel. By intentionally leaving the end vague and confusing, the audience cannot feel the comforting closure that comes with the finishing of a novel, something we clearly depend on to make sense of any story. This clearly had an effect on the performance of the play in its first run in theatres. The play wasn’t a success mainly because of its confusing nature. 

Pereira Declares

     In the United States we are fortunate to have a government that is based on democracy and allows for personal liberties and freedom.  The first amendment in the U. S. Constitution provides for the freedom of speech, allowing citizens to express their beliefs and ideas with government restrictions.  The story, Pereira Declares, by Antonio Tabucchi, addresses the freedom of expression or lack thereof as well as its consequences.  This book takes place in Portugal, at a time, when the country is under the control of an authoritarian regime.   Their main objective is to keep people from questioning their motives and limiting the literature available to its people.   The main character, a man named Pereira, writes for a newspaper called the Libosa.  As a writer, under such restrictions he is limited to what he can write.

“Then do something about it. Such as what?, asked Pereira. Well, said Senhora Delgado, you’re intellectual, tell people what’s going on in Europe, tell them your honest opinion, just get on and do something” (Tabucchi 45).

     In this particular quote Senhora Delgado is trying to convince Pereira to share his opinions in his writing.  He responds to her by saying, “I’ll do my best Senhora Delgado, but it isn’t easy to do one’s best in a country like this for a person like me” (45).  Pereira is afraid of the consequences that come with sharing his views in the paper.    This notion of limiting expression has been apparent throughout history.  A notorious example of this occurred in Germany during World War II when the Nazis burned a plethora of books in an attempt to control others.  The Nazis were aware of the power of written word and went to drastic measures to eliminate it.  Pereira understands that if he were to write his own opinions, he would become an enemy of the government.  No matter how much he wants to tell the truth, he is unable to because he would run the risk of putting himself in harm’s way.  Pereira Declares has further opened my eyes to the importance of writing and the significance of my first amendment right.

If on a winter's night a traveler

If on a winter’s night a traveler is a novel written by Italo Calvino. Although I really enjoyed the writing style and through that the author’s use of second-person narration was very interesting and enjoyable, I found myself very confused several times while in the process of reading the novel. Italo Calvino is an author who uses post-modernist writing, a style that is experimental and abstract. This is apparent throughout the novel. In chapter eight, Calvino tells the reader that he believes the process of writing makes it impossible to write the novel that they author intends to create: “all the elements that make what I write recognizable as mine seem to me a cage that restricts my possibilities…if I were only a hand, a severed hand that grasps the pen and writes…Who would move this hand?” (171). Calvino acknowledge that it is impossible for a writer to keep his or her own biases out of the novel they are writing, and so even non-fiction writing has some fictional aspects in it. I related this back to the article in the DePauw magazine, which talked about a program that was created to write creative stories without the need of an author. This may worry some people that the value of literature will diminish once computers are able to write our books for us, but I on the other hand, and perhaps Calvino would agree, that this new developments offers a unique opportunity to see what kind of literature could be creative without the influence of a human author.

Response to If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

             Not unlike Invisible Cities with its post-modern approach and complex narration, Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is a piece of meta fiction.  The novel questions, at its heart, the meaning of writing.  It does so by exploring the implications and limitations of writing and language.  Calvino includes the beginnings of ten stories as a way to demonstrate to the reader the impossibility of a single, universal meaning—following suit with his post-modern approach to literature.  But it is really in his chapters in which he addresses the readers that Calvino’s complexity of narration is made more evident.  One of the most interesting concepts that Calvino introduces is the value of a piece of work after it is written.  In chapter eight, Calvino seems to be saying that the art of writing is restricting: “all the elements that make what I write recognizable as mine seem to me a cage that restricts my possibilities…if I were only a hand, a severed hand that grasps the pen and writes…Who would move this hand?” (Calvino 171).  Here Calvino questions the written world in comparison to the unwritten world: “the book should be the written counterpart of the unwritten world” (Calvino 172).  He feels restricted by his writing because it can be tied back to him.  His published writing has created for him an identity to which all future writing will be held accountable.  The idea of “a severed hand” questions the relationship between author and work—creator and art.  Calvino seems to be saying that there is a certain value in an unfinished work, hence the title of the novel “IF on a Winter’s Night a Traveler,” and his inclusion of ten unfinished stories.   

Response to Pereira Maintains

Pereirra--he himself being widowed--spends much of his adult life thinking of death, feeling remorseful of his present and past. A constant obsession with the past makes Pereira indifferent to the present until “it seems to [him] that the whole world is dead or on the point of death” (Tabucchi 11).  In making the reader aware of Pereira's obsession with death, Tabucchi sets up a stark contrast between Pereira and his mentee Rossi, who is first introduced as possessing an interest not in death but in life. Pereira senses Monteiro Rossi’s political enthusiasm, but attempts to stifle it.  But Rossi's political views take on a strength incomparable to Pereira’s censorship.  Even Marta challenges Pereira’s complacency by instructing him to “do something about it”--it being his sensible unhappiness. As writers, both characters have responsibilities to print the truth, but Tabucchi instills within each of them different definitions of responsibility.  As Pereira tells Rossi, “journalism nowadays in Portugal has no place for either irresponsibility or troublemaking” (Tabucchi 33).  Yet Pereira says this because, as the reader comes to find, he experiences an incongruity between what he says and what he thinks—an incongruity conditioned by the political censorship he experiences as a writer and an incongruity that Pereira himself wishes to execute by printing the truth.

Response to The Little Virtues

           
             Despite its surface-level simplicity of language and somewhat colloquial nature, Natalia Ginzburg’s The Little Virtues delves in to highly philosophical problems resulting in her harsh critiques on society and human nature.  Especially in the short story titled “England: Eulogy and Lament,” Ginzburg makes no effort to desensitize her critiques on England.  Yet, her short stories should not be viewed as criticisms alone because it is the ability of her short stories to exist as separate lessons that gives the collection a certain wisdom.  Among her harshest criticisms of the English is their melancholy which Ginzburg believes is the result of their lack imagination and authenticity.  She believes that the English have unknowingly lost their authenticity.  She says “nothing is the world is sadder than an English conversation, in which everyone is careful to keep to superficialities and never touch on anything essential” (Ginzburg 25).  Considering her history as a writer who has no qualms about speaking out against postwar political constructs and recession, it can be said that her classification of England as “the most melancholy country in the world” has something to do with politics in postwar England.  The English lack imagination and are careful to keep their conversations in the realm of superficialities because they are victims of strict government control, which leaves the country in a state of melancholy.