
Italo Calvino, The Art of Fiction No. 130 (1992) - portobello
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2027/italo-calvino-the-art-of-fiction-no-130-italo-calvino
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realbarack
One of my favorite passages of prose is from Calvino's "Invisible Cities"; I
can't pass up the opportunity to share it on HN:

"When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a
city. Finally he comes to Isidora, a city where the buildings have spiral
staircases encrusted with spiral seashells, where perfect telescopes and
violins are made, where the foreigner hesitating between two women always
encounters a third, where cockfights degenerate into bloody brawls among the
bettors. He was thinking of all these things when he desired a city. Isidora,
therefore, is the city of his dreams: with one difference. The dreamed-of city
contained him as a young man; he arrives at Isidora in his old age. In the
square there is the wall where the old men sit and watch the young go by; he
is seated in a row with them. Desires are already memories."

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retsibsi
Invisible cities was too visual for me (I have a weak visual imagination, so I
can't appreciate books that rely too heavily on images), but I really liked If
On A Winter's Night a Traveler, and this quote reminds me that I want to read
more Calvino.

Would you (or anyone else here) recommend another book of his, given those
preferences/weaknesses of mine?

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qfwfq_
Cosmicomics has long been my single favorite collection of written work.
Calvino's amazing.

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galaxyLogic
Yes that's the best I think, and very suitable for HN audience

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p0llard
A friend lent me a copy of Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler" which
I would strongly recommend if you're looking for something a bit different.
It's written in the second person (the protagonist is you, the reader) and is
alarmingly postmodern.

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retsibsi
I think it's even enjoyable by people who would be put off by the phrase
'alarmingly postmodern'.

It's playful and weird and meta, sure, but it's not _difficult_ (or purely an
excuse for Calvino to show off), and there is sincerity not far below the
surface.

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p0llard
Perhaps I chose my words poorly; I very much enjoyed reading it, and would
strongly recommend it to anyone.

~~~
retsibsi
Sorry, I didn't mean that as a criticism, and your message was pretty clear. I
just thought that some people (possibly me, if I hadn't already read the book)
might be unnecessarily put off by that final phrase.

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cryoshon
calvino was a fascinating person and a powerful author. it's a shame he isn't
more recognized in the mainstream of western literature.

he strikes me as the kind of person who is both mysterious and familiar at the
same time -- someone who is wise and accessible, yet avuncular and rare to
interact with. and, of course, he's deeply italian.

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billfruit
In general Italian Fiction, I think receives much less attention than French
or Russian, at least till the end of last century, it is not easy to find
translations of the Italian greats like Manzoni, Tasso, even Petrarch these
days.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/wHKO2](http://archive.is/wHKO2)

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Causality1
For those not interested in a tremendous amount of meaningless piffle about
the article author, skip twenty paragraphs in to get the actual interview with
Calvino.

