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palomapepper's review
5.0
In these essays - selected from various papers & symposiums over the course of the 1960s/70s - Calvino examines the intersections of literature with philosophy, science, psychology, and politics. He’s blazingly insightful, incredibly well-read, and has an intensely logical, mathematical way of dissecting literature.
My favorites:
Why Read the Classics? - various definitions of what makes a piece of literature a “classic”, and the role of such classics in a reader's life. "A classic,” goes one such definition, "is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."
Cybernetics and Ghosts - thoughts about linguistics, storytelling, artificial intelligence, and the potential to mechanize the production of literature.
Levels of Reality in Literature
Definitions of Territories: Eroticism - about the treatment of sexual themes in the modern novel
Definitions of Territories: Fantasy
Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature
The Odysseys Within the Odyssey - a short essay on folktale patterns, memory, identity, and restorative journeying in Homer’s epic
I didn't necessarily agree with everything he said (e.g. when thinking about mechanizing literature, what's with his apparent desire to erase the figure of the author and reduce humanity's role to one of passive consumption? why would this be beneficial?)... but I certainly found him very thought-provoking.
(I admit to only having skimmed most essays in the latter half of the book, as they’re all in-depth studies of books I haven’t read (yet?), and I didn’t feel I'd get as much out of them.)
My favorites:
Why Read the Classics? - various definitions of what makes a piece of literature a “classic”, and the role of such classics in a reader's life. "A classic,” goes one such definition, "is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."
Cybernetics and Ghosts - thoughts about linguistics, storytelling, artificial intelligence, and the potential to mechanize the production of literature.
Levels of Reality in Literature
Definitions of Territories: Eroticism - about the treatment of sexual themes in the modern novel
Definitions of Territories: Fantasy
Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature
The Odysseys Within the Odyssey - a short essay on folktale patterns, memory, identity, and restorative journeying in Homer’s epic
I didn't necessarily agree with everything he said (e.g. when thinking about mechanizing literature, what's with his apparent desire to erase the figure of the author and reduce humanity's role to one of passive consumption? why would this be beneficial?)... but I certainly found him very thought-provoking.
(I admit to only having skimmed most essays in the latter half of the book, as they’re all in-depth studies of books I haven’t read (yet?), and I didn’t feel I'd get as much out of them.)
wmhenrymorris's review against another edition
The essays in Part I are more interesting than the ones in Part II. Otherwise it would have been four stars. And the advantage of the book as a whole is that all the essays are fairly short and they are written within the context of conversations and publications in Italy (and France and England) in the 1960s and '70s. Or in other words, this Calvino very much playing the role of public intellectual.
So if you are interested in reading work that's responding to the throes of literary theory, especially that coming out of France, then you should definitely pick this up. Read the ones that grab you, skim or skip the others. I personally found it interesting as a type of highly specialized receptions studies to see Calvino bouncing off of Barthes or Frye or others, reacting near the time of publication of certain works of literary theory that are now hoary or crystalized or laminated.
So if you are interested in reading work that's responding to the throes of literary theory, especially that coming out of France, then you should definitely pick this up. Read the ones that grab you, skim or skip the others. I personally found it interesting as a type of highly specialized receptions studies to see Calvino bouncing off of Barthes or Frye or others, reacting near the time of publication of certain works of literary theory that are now hoary or crystalized or laminated.
mmarques's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
I love Italo Calvino's fiction. However, most of these essays were not that interesting. The last two, however, were brilliant.
italo_carlvino's review
3.0
I finished most of the essays and I might finish the rest of them later. Though, I am feeling a bit burnt out. I love much of Calvino's fiction and some of his essays have surprising revelations. The famous What is a Classic essay has one of my favorite definitions of a classic "A book that has never finished saying what it has to say," but past a certain point the essays weren't as interesting. I am probably just burnt out or unfamiliar with the poets and novels he is writing about. I liked it overall but I was not affected as deeply as when I read his novels or short fiction.
dan1066's review against another edition
3.0
Even if the folk imagination is therefore not boundless like the ocean, there is no reason to think of it as being like a water tank of small capacity. On an equal level of civilization, the operations of narrative, like those of mathematics, cannot differ all that much from one people to another, but what can be constructed on the basis of these elementary processes can present unlimited combinations, permutations, and transformations...
I will not go into technical details on which I could only be an unauthorized and rather unreliable commentator. My intention here is merely to sum up the situation, to make connections between a number of books I have recently read, and to put these in the context of a few general reflections.
"Cybernetics and Ghosts"
These two passages from Italo Calvino's opening essay in his collection, The Uses of Literature, sum up the game plan for the overall volume: Calvino "makes connections between a number of books" he has recently read, and these connections are insightful, revealing a keen intellect complemented with a wonderful sense of humor. At times, some topics--especially those dealing with 19th century novelists--can be obtuse, but Calvino manages to impart wisdom even when deep within a work utterly alien to me.
His three essays on Fourier are amazing. Calvino spent a decade reading Fourier's work and he traces the evolution of utopian literature so common in the 19th century to our dystopian focus in so much of our contemporary fiction. Calvino's argument and prose in describing how utopian dreams have been dashed upon the rocks of experience is compelling:
After all the setbacks that faith in rational projection and prediction has suffered since then, after so many good intentions have been blunted against the wall of the inertia of vested interests and conditioned behavior, after the networks of so many urban projects have seen their mesh torn asunder by fish that were just too big for them, and now that the outlook for capitalist culture revolves around an image of catastrophe, concentrating all its fantasies on it (the foreseeing, preventing, or administering of catastrophe), this is when we choose to revisit utopia. But why?
The downside to this collection, as may be obvious in the preceding sample from the essay "On Fourier, III: A Utopia of Fine Dust," is Calvino has a tendency to dive deep into critical theory. Many times his forays are navigable; I am able to stay abreast of him. At other times, he dives so deep I lose sight of him and cannot discern what he is going on about. Fortunately, these moments are surrounded by moments of extreme clarity and precision. In fact, if I actually read more of the works he often alludes to (say, more Roland Barthes), I'm sure what I consider deep dives may likely be shallow excursions into theory which my inexperienced toddler self views as bottomless abysses.
The entire collection can be a chore to read through, but I'm glad I persevered. As I noted earlier, no matter what Calvino is discussing he inevitably brings something to the reader which is unique and treasured. It's certainly not for everyone, but he has such an intellectual gift that those willing to ride alongside him will no doubt benefit from the encounter.
I will not go into technical details on which I could only be an unauthorized and rather unreliable commentator. My intention here is merely to sum up the situation, to make connections between a number of books I have recently read, and to put these in the context of a few general reflections.
"Cybernetics and Ghosts"
These two passages from Italo Calvino's opening essay in his collection, The Uses of Literature, sum up the game plan for the overall volume: Calvino "makes connections between a number of books" he has recently read, and these connections are insightful, revealing a keen intellect complemented with a wonderful sense of humor. At times, some topics--especially those dealing with 19th century novelists--can be obtuse, but Calvino manages to impart wisdom even when deep within a work utterly alien to me.
His three essays on Fourier are amazing. Calvino spent a decade reading Fourier's work and he traces the evolution of utopian literature so common in the 19th century to our dystopian focus in so much of our contemporary fiction. Calvino's argument and prose in describing how utopian dreams have been dashed upon the rocks of experience is compelling:
After all the setbacks that faith in rational projection and prediction has suffered since then, after so many good intentions have been blunted against the wall of the inertia of vested interests and conditioned behavior, after the networks of so many urban projects have seen their mesh torn asunder by fish that were just too big for them, and now that the outlook for capitalist culture revolves around an image of catastrophe, concentrating all its fantasies on it (the foreseeing, preventing, or administering of catastrophe), this is when we choose to revisit utopia. But why?
The downside to this collection, as may be obvious in the preceding sample from the essay "On Fourier, III: A Utopia of Fine Dust," is Calvino has a tendency to dive deep into critical theory. Many times his forays are navigable; I am able to stay abreast of him. At other times, he dives so deep I lose sight of him and cannot discern what he is going on about. Fortunately, these moments are surrounded by moments of extreme clarity and precision. In fact, if I actually read more of the works he often alludes to (say, more Roland Barthes), I'm sure what I consider deep dives may likely be shallow excursions into theory which my inexperienced toddler self views as bottomless abysses.
The entire collection can be a chore to read through, but I'm glad I persevered. As I noted earlier, no matter what Calvino is discussing he inevitably brings something to the reader which is unique and treasured. It's certainly not for everyone, but he has such an intellectual gift that those willing to ride alongside him will no doubt benefit from the encounter.
sarahciston's review
5.0
Italo Calvino is my Number One MySpace Friend. It's an illustrious position to hold and one that I do not take lightly. These essays make my brain mushy in the best possible way. I think I want to have his posthumous literary metaphorical babies. Never mind N'Sync, where can I get a poster of Calv?
Really, though, any one of these essays is worth the price of admission alone.
Really, though, any one of these essays is worth the price of admission alone.
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