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A review by palomapepper
The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino
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.)