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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Italo calvino: invisible cities

at the scarwash

17:04 / 17.11.03

So I'm in the midst of doing research on Calvino's Invisible Cities, particulary regarding his use of metatextual techniques (c'mon, say it with me, you'll feel real smart) and what I have dubbed "text-machines" for the purpose of the paper I'm working on. As in, each of the cities in Invisible Cities is a text-machine crafted by Calvino in order to drag together content and text in such a way that each sheds light on the other. So, because I'm a big ole idiot and have bittten off more than I can chew, does anyone have any ideas or directions as to articles or books on this subject or related matters.

I was thinking about laying some Lyotard on the subject, but I feel, and will continue to feel, that Calvino deserves, and will continue to deserve better.

Get it? Lyotard joke? Jesus, I'm lame.

11:32 / 18.11.03

Sounds interesting. Perhaps it might be worth elaborating the idea of the 'text-machine' (which I love, by the way, it sounds very steampunkish for some reason) by comparing it to poems and other forms of writing where the words and the content work together in a similar fashion. I don't know how fruitful this would be, or how feasible it is for you, but it's the only thing that sprang to mind (what with me being no theorybitch).

Tell us more if you feel you can...

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

13:50 / 18.11.03

May I ask if you're using a translation or reading it in Italian?

at the scarwash

20:01 / 18.11.03

Being non-Italisavy, I am forced to use the excellent Weaver translation.

20:52 / 18.11.03

I love Calvino and I love this book. But how exactly are you defining 'text-machine'?

21:05 / 18.11.03

I’ve enjoyed Calvino for many years now. He really breaks down the walls in his own way.

This “text machine” sounds nifty. I take this as being a device that is not a static entity, and that by via its constructions works with the reader through the intent of the author and the mechanics of the bond between syntax and meaning to create effects for the reader that go beyond the boarders of the covers or the closed system that is book and reader.

So I feel Calvino goes beyond mere post-modern technique into something else. While reading Calvino I feel that I am as much writing him as he is writing me into the narrative.

at the scarwash

23:15 / 18.11.03

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant by text-machine. A piece of text that actively and with self-awareness engages the reader on the terrain of indeterminate readings.

23:16 / 18.11.03

I was introduced to Calvino and INVISIBLE CITIES by an architect who loved Calvino's appreciation for design and its impact on society. I recommend, as was recommended to me, that you read some of the work of Aldo Rossi. Perhaps the best introductory text you can read is "The Architecture of the City" by Rossi. He was a contemporary of Calvino's and their thoughts on society overlap.

"Aldo Rossi, a practicing architect and leader of the Italian architectural movement La Tendenza, is also one of the most influential theorists writing today. The Architecture of the City is his major work of architectural and urban theory. In part a protest against functionalism and the Modern Movement, in part an attempt to restore the craft of architecture to its position as the only valid object of architectural study, and in part an analysis of the rules and forms of the city's construction, the book has become immensely popular among architects and design students."

Also, you might want to check out "The Passion" by Jeannette Winterson, for an alternate but equally thrilling mediation on Venice. Winterson has a wonderful comment early on in the book about how all journeys are several journeys on the map, there are hidden levels to all stories, which I always felt was a nice summation of Invisible Cities. Winterson undoubtably read the book so perhaps she was making a deliberate reference.

Finally - for giggles - I invite you to visit jennyeverywhere.com and check out the comic I did called MRS. ZIRMA, since Invisible Cities makes a cameo, and it also greatly influenced the story. You might find it amusing. At least, I hope so.

good luck.

13:51 / 19.11.03

Never read Invisible Cities (I will now!) but it's worth mentioning Calvino's 'Castle of Crossed Destinies', based on the Tarot, where he achieves a similar effect by allowing the reader to follow interwoven stories in different directions, top stuff. I also loved 'If on a winter's night a traveller' in which he describes the experience of picking up the new Italo Calvine book 'If on a winter's night a traveller' and ropes you in that way.
I'm sure well enough alone knows all this stuff, just had to mention it.

13:05 / 19.12.03

maybe make your paper specifically about Calvino...you'd probably have an easy time applying your idea to On a Winters Night A Traveller as well...
mikeh

at the scarwash

20:38 / 19.12.03

Well, it pretty much ended up being a paper that unwrote itself as it went along, using examples from the text and randomly-selected quotations from pop songs to demonstrate how it was almost impossible to say anything concrete about the novel.

The Photographer in Blowup

18:12 / 09.02.04

The problem with Calvino is that he's too recent, and so there aren't that many studies about his works yet.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:43 / 10.02.04

Oddly enough, My friend Kate introduced me to Invisible Cities and I ended up reading it right before reading Winterson's "The Passion." A bit of random synchronicity. I actually highly recommend it, although I had a bit of a thing about Venice for a while as a result.

The text-machine idea is weirdly fascinating. I keep picturing literary nanobots or something, worming their way around people's brains.

I'm curious to read this paper (or unpaper, apparently). It reminds me of a paper for Short Fiction Techniques where I wrote a short story which utterly failed in what it was trying to do, so my thesis and ideas ended up as a chunky footnote on the last page (Which actually got me an A-). The topic of the paper? There was nothing specific, but it had to be titled and answer the question "Why is the short story good and hard?"