Take a photo of a barcode or cover
chanelearl's review against another edition
This book contains five essay, which each discuss a characteristic of good writing. I like the essays on lightness, quickness, exactitude and multiplicity. The essay on visibility lost me.
I think the overabundance of foreign languages was also annoying.
I think the overabundance of foreign languages was also annoying.
zenrabbit's review against another edition
4.0
A thoughtful series of lectures, never given as he passed away before being able to deliver them, by a marvelous writer who challenges us to think about our realities and not just be entertained by a story.
A favorite quote from the book:
Even before science had officially recognized that observation intervenes in some way to modify the phenomenon being observed, Gadda (Carlo Emilio Gadda) knew that “to know is to insert something into what is real, and hence to distort reality.”
A favorite quote from the book:
Even before science had officially recognized that observation intervenes in some way to modify the phenomenon being observed, Gadda (Carlo Emilio Gadda) knew that “to know is to insert something into what is real, and hence to distort reality.”
celestelipkes's review against another edition
5.0
Even though Calvino throws around a ton of famous works I've never read and even though there are whole chunks of untranslated Italian and even though parts of these essays go whoosh whoosh whoosh over my head, this is still an incredible book. Just knowing Calvino's idea of magical objects is worth the price of this book--and that's just one small section. I read parts of this book in undergrad before rereading it in its entirety, and a lot of it has stuck with me: the crab anecdote, especially.
jonfaith's review against another edition
4.0
I would not be so drastic. I think we are always searching for something hidden or merely potential or hypothetical, following its traces whenever they appear on the surface. I think our basic mental processes have come down to us through every period of history, ever since our Paleolithic forefathers, who were hunters and gatherers. The word connects the visible trace with the invisible thing, the absent thing, the thing that is desired or feared, like a frail emergency bridge flung over an abyss.
Calvino's posthumous lectures are a grand gallop across a cherished earth of letters. The Six Memos For The Next Millennium are a celebration of Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility and Multiplicity (the sixth was never written at the time of Calvino's passing). The ruminations and citations extend from Ovid and Lucretius onward through Dante, Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cyrano, Valery, Flaubert, Musil and, especially, Borges. This is a wonderful construction, one without grandiosity, but teeming with an organic eloquence.
Were I to choose an auspicious image for the new millennium, I would choose that one: the sudden agile leap of the poet-philosopher who raises himself above the weight of the world, showing that with all his gravity he ahs the secret of lightness, and that what many consider to be the vitality of the times--noisy, aggressive, revving and roaring--belongs to the realm of death, like a cemetery for rusty old cars.
Calvino's posthumous lectures are a grand gallop across a cherished earth of letters. The Six Memos For The Next Millennium are a celebration of Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility and Multiplicity (the sixth was never written at the time of Calvino's passing). The ruminations and citations extend from Ovid and Lucretius onward through Dante, Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cyrano, Valery, Flaubert, Musil and, especially, Borges. This is a wonderful construction, one without grandiosity, but teeming with an organic eloquence.
Were I to choose an auspicious image for the new millennium, I would choose that one: the sudden agile leap of the poet-philosopher who raises himself above the weight of the world, showing that with all his gravity he ahs the secret of lightness, and that what many consider to be the vitality of the times--noisy, aggressive, revving and roaring--belongs to the realm of death, like a cemetery for rusty old cars.
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
4.0
Helpful memos, encouraging us to look back and ahead. Calvino makes great use of stories and myths.
johnnyscifo's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A great guide that is actually about the art of writing. Don't get overwhelmed by the long verses in Italian, the translations are right afterward. An invaluable resource for the write of short stories and novels.