… and next …
If on a Winter’s Night, a Traveller … by Italo Calvino
If on a winter’s night a traveller
outside the town of Malbork
leaning from the steep slope
without fear of wind or vertigo
looks down in the gathering shadow
in a network of lines that enlace
in a network of lines that intersect
on the carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon
around an empty grave
what story down there awaits its end?
I’m not a great one for reading poetry, but the above reads like one. It’s the chapter headings for the book. Nice, and part of the artistry that is this postmodern work from Italian intellectual Italo Calvino. The following definition which I came across, I’ve forgotten where, aptly describes this work:
Postmodernism seeks to disrupt the grand narrative, and expose the artifice of writing.
Review: I had fond memories of reading this, 30 years ago. It seemed to me that this was a book for bibliophiles, drawing out in detail what it means to us to choose a book and read it. I had forgotten that it is also a very difficult book. Actually, researching it a bit I learned that Calvino later “explained” the structure of the book as springing from his collaboration with some French mathematicians and writers (the Oulipo group) and I have to say it went right over my head. Suffice it to say that the book is experimental. Alternate chapters (titles above) launch us into new and completely different books, and reveal the extraordinary imagination and writing ability of Calvino. The remaining chapters are numbered and speak directly to us and draw us into them. Indeed, the story chapters sometimes speak to us too. I found the numbered chapters increasingly difficult as the book progressed; not a sentiment I remember from my first exploration.
Two writers sprang to mind as I read: My first impression, a new one since I hadn’t come across Butor when I first encountered Calvino, was of stepping into Michel Butor’s La Modification which centres you, The Reader, in the action and is written in the formal second person (vous). The second was Paul Auster who is most striking for his liberal shrinking of ideas for novels into the pages of his novels, showing an extravagance with his ideas which suggests the prospect of writer’s block is one he doesn’t fear.
My conclusion: a landmark book which I remembered for decades as a truly notable work and which drew my taste firmly towards postmodernism, but, a book you need to work with to appreciate.
Asynchronists 