Bluegill
Graduate Poster
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About ten years ago I read Invisible Cities, and I've read little bits and pieces of it since. Sometime soon, my book club will be reading and discussing it.
It's a great book, I really like it. I've long considered doing a series of paintings based on some of the "chapters" in it.
I'm unfamiliar with the book you've mentioned, hgc.
It's a great book, I really like it. I've long considered doing a series of paintings based on some of the "chapters" in it.
I'm unfamiliar with the book you've mentioned, hgc.
I have read the "Invisible Cities" too. I read it rather early , when I was 17 and I was impressed, I am not sure that I 'd be that impressed now.
I find his writing very passionate, very romantic ( in essence and not mushy) maybe the reason why I liked this book so much is because I related to the Mediterranean landscapes he was describing.
He was putting in words things that I have felt and thought about the environment that surrounds me
How is the book you are reading?
Kalvino belongs to the same tradition with Primo Levi, I don't know if Bluegill has read any of his books, also I don't know how Americans can relate to those books.
"Down here" the sizes are so different We don't have those big horizons, we worship the tiny things and the tiny details of everyday life, one can write a novel about the light and talk to the hearts of many people, we are quite different in many aspects.
I must confess that I was surprized when I saw Italo Kalvino's name in a thread in an American forum
I think that I will never get rid of my biases
I find his writing very passionate, very romantic ( in essence and not mushy) maybe the reason why I liked this book so much is because I related to the Mediterranean landscapes he was describing.
He was putting in words things that I have felt and thought about the environment that surrounds me
How is the book you are reading?
Kalvino belongs to the same tradition with Primo Levi, I don't know if Bluegill has read any of his books, also I don't know how Americans can relate to those books.
"Down here" the sizes are so different
We don't have those big horizons, we worship the tiny things and the tiny details of everyday life, one can write a novel about the light and talk to the hearts of many people, we are quite different in many aspects.I must confess that I was surprized when I saw Italo Kalvino's name in a thread in an American forum
I think that I will never get rid of my biases
Bluegill
Graduate Poster
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I've read a little by Primo Levi-- The Periodic Tables. I bought The Saved and the Drowned at a yard sale, but I have not read it yet. I'm looking forward to reading it.
My brother has read quite a bit by Calvino, and wants me to read more. I want to, also, but it's so hard to make time to read! I read a short story in a book he loaned me. It was something about the ancient times when the moon was low, and they would take a boat out and climb onto the moon and gather...something. Seafood. I forget. I don't even know if I finished reading it, but I want to read it again.
My brother has read quite a bit by Calvino, and wants me to read more. I want to, also, but it's so hard to make time to read! I read a short story in a book he loaned me. It was something about the ancient times when the moon was low, and they would take a boat out and climb onto the moon and gather...something. Seafood. I forget. I don't even know if I finished reading it, but I want to read it again.
roger
Penultimate Amazing
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Oh Cleopatra.....
I have read most of Calvino, and Levi. You'll find their books in any decent used or new bookstore here (US).
However, it's been so long since I've read Calvino that I probably have nothing useful to add to the discussion, except chiding you for your biases, of course
I have read most of Calvino, and Levi. You'll find their books in any decent used or new bookstore here (US).
However, it's been so long since I've read Calvino that I probably have nothing useful to add to the discussion, except chiding you for your biases, of course
So you have read Primo Levi...
I love both Primo Levi and Italo Calvino, I wonder what you think when you read it, something similar to what a Mediterranean thinks when he reads Garcia-Marques maybe?
In the Sunday school they used to tell us that when you confess a sin it is not a sin anymore
I love both Primo Levi and Italo Calvino, I wonder what you think when you read it, something similar to what a Mediterranean thinks when he reads Garcia-Marques maybe?
In the Sunday school they used to tell us that when you confess a sin it is not a sin anymore
hgc
Penultimate Amazing
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I read a lot, and I can't believe I was never familiar with Calvino before recently. The only one I've read before is Invisible Cities, which is really nice. I've just started this one, and I like it a lot. Actually, it's my selection for my bookclub this month.
I'll add my specific thoughts as I read it over the next couple of days.
Hey Cleo, we're not all drooling slobs over here.
I'll add my specific thoughts as I read it over the next couple of days.
Hey Cleo, we're not all drooling slobs over here.
hgc
Penultimate Amazing
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OK, I won't make you faint, but I can say that I have been planning to read Iris Murdoch very soon. There was a movie about her recently (as I'm sure you know) with Kate Winslet and Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent. Roger Ebert, my favorite movie critic, hated this movie because it focused on her early escapades and on her late life senility, and left out the story of her creative life. He was especially mad because he's a raving fan. It piqued my interest, and now she's on the list. Recommend a book, please.Cleopatra said:
a_unique_person
Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning
I have read an Iris Murdoch book once, forget the name. Reminded me a lot of Doris Lessing.
Have you read any of the Adam Osborne books on Microprocessors? Hmph, I thought not.
Have you read any of the Adam Osborne books on Microprocessors? Hmph, I thought not.
Brown
Penultimate Amazing
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Me! I have! It's been a while, though. I think I still have "Running Wild" around someplace, and it's good for a laugh.a_unique_person said:
As for the other folks -- Italo Calvino, Primo Levi, Iris Murdoch -- I've never even heard of them. I can't help it, but my lack of knowledge in this area makes me feel a little foolish.
DrMatt
Graduate Poster
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I've read "If on a winter's night a traveller" a couple of times... in English. And I kinda think I read "Invisible Cities" when I was an undergraduate.
In general, Calvino's shtik seems to be to do in writing what Brecht did in theater: draw the curtain back so you can see the stagecraft behind the scenes as part of the story itself, and make a show-business bit of showing off his own sheer virtuousity as a writer and thus as the hidden protagonist of all his books. If he weren't so fiendishly clever at it, this would be annoying.
As far as I know, "If on a winter's night a traveller..." is the only complete novel in the world written primarily in the second person. Now that's khutzpah!
In general, Calvino's shtik seems to be to do in writing what Brecht did in theater: draw the curtain back so you can see the stagecraft behind the scenes as part of the story itself, and make a show-business bit of showing off his own sheer virtuousity as a writer and thus as the hidden protagonist of all his books. If he weren't so fiendishly clever at it, this would be annoying.
As far as I know, "If on a winter's night a traveller..." is the only complete novel in the world written primarily in the second person. Now that's khutzpah!
roger
Penultimate Amazing
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yes to her, yes to Robert Musil, yes to Vasily Grossman, yes to Gunter Grass, yes to Balzac, yes to Zola, yes to Nabakov, yes to Kundera, yes to James, yes to Homer, yes to Mann, yes to Kundera, yes to Calvino, yes to Camus, yes to Penelope Fitzgerald, yes to Wole Soyinka, yes to ....Cleopatra said:
Getting the picture yet?
First of all, I asked a friend who has studied Italian Literature and he sent me those links about Calvino, all of them are excellent!
I copy and paste them from his e-mail.
hgc
Iris Murdoch is my favorite novelist. I think that she is the most important writer of the 20th ce. Her observations on human's soul can be compared only to the work of Dostoyefsky. My favorite book is " The Black Prince" that I consider her best book. I think that she is the only female writer I know that she can describe so well a man's soul, most of her heroes happen to be men anyway.
I started re-reading this morning and during lunch the "Invisible Cities".Beautiful! Does he talk about the cities he has visited or about the human types he has met?
Roger if you have read Muzil you are a hero! LOL
I copy and paste them from his e-mail.
hgc
Iris Murdoch is my favorite novelist. I think that she is the most important writer of the 20th ce. Her observations on human's soul can be compared only to the work of Dostoyefsky. My favorite book is " The Black Prince" that I consider her best book. I think that she is the only female writer I know that she can describe so well a man's soul, most of her heroes happen to be men anyway.
I started re-reading this morning and during lunch the "Invisible Cities".Beautiful! Does he talk about the cities he has visited or about the human types he has met?
Roger if you have read Muzil you are a hero! LOL
hgc
Penultimate Amazing
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I'm glad this thread got bumped up. I forgot to report back that I read If on a winters night a travler.
I very much enjoyed it. It's a collection of pieces of 10 different novels, and with a framing narrative in which the narrator ("The Reader") describes his adventures in trying to finish just any one of these books, and more importantly, his adventures in trying to get the girl, a lovely eccentric named Ludmilla ("The Other Reader"). Of course most of the 10 bits of novels are also about some guy trying to get the girl, which is the subtle-but-not-so-subtle theme here. The more overt theme is about the nature of literature and our relationship to it as a reader of books. And about how literature is necessarily and excitingly subversive to the prevailing powers. It did start to get a little tedious in the framing narrative, but the 10 bits of the novels are all great -- each written in a different style (ostensibly by 10 different authors - but are they?). I would definitely recommend this book.
I very much enjoyed it. It's a collection of pieces of 10 different novels, and with a framing narrative in which the narrator ("The Reader") describes his adventures in trying to finish just any one of these books, and more importantly, his adventures in trying to get the girl, a lovely eccentric named Ludmilla ("The Other Reader"). Of course most of the 10 bits of novels are also about some guy trying to get the girl, which is the subtle-but-not-so-subtle theme here. The more overt theme is about the nature of literature and our relationship to it as a reader of books. And about how literature is necessarily and excitingly subversive to the prevailing powers. It did start to get a little tedious in the framing narrative, but the 10 bits of the novels are all great -- each written in a different style (ostensibly by 10 different authors - but are they?). I would definitely recommend this book.