#Italo Calvino

[ilions-end]

Odysseus or Guerin Meschino or Robin Hood are kings or sons of kings and noble knights overtaken by misfortune who, when they eventually triumph over their enemies, will restore a just society in which their true identity will be recognized. But is this still the same identity as before? The Odysseus who returns to Ithaca as an old beggar whom nobody recognizes is perhaps not the same person as the Odysseus who set out for Troy. It was no accident that he had saved his own life by changing his name to Nobody. [...] the unrecognizable Odysseus, on awakening in Ithaca, does not recognize his homeland. Athena herself has to intervene to reassure him that Ithaca is really Ithaca. There is a general identity crisis in the second half of The Odyssey. Only the tale guarantees that the characters and the places are the same characters and places as before.

— Italo Calvino, The Odysseys Within the Odyssey

[davidhudson]

Italo Calvino, October 15, 1923 – September 19, 1985.

[metaphrasis]

“I, too, feel the need to reread the books I have already read," a third reader says, "but at every rereading I seem to be reading a new book, for the first time. Is it I who keep changing and seeing new things of which I was not previously aware? Or is reading a construction that assumes form, assembling a great number of variables, and therefore something that cannot be repeated twice according to the same pattern? Every time I seek to relive the emotion of a previous reading, I experience different and unexpected impressions, and do not find again those of before. At certain moments it seems to me that between one reading and the next there is a progression: in the sense, for example, of penetrating further into the spirit of the text, or of increasing my critical detachment. At other moments, on the contrary, I seem to retain the memory of the readings of a single book one next to another, enthusiastic or cold or hostile, scattered in time without a perspective, without a thread that ties them together. The conclusion I have reached is that reading is an operation without object; or that its true object is itself. The book is an accessory aid, or even a pretext.”

— Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

[nobeerreviews]

The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand.

-- Italo Calvino

(Freiburg, Germany)

[thebeautifulbook]

INVISIBLE CITIES by Italo Calvino. [San Diego: Harvest, 1972]

Art Binding by Dmitri Koutsipetsidis, He’s known for his great bindings on FRANKENSTEIN, THE WASTELAND, THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

source — about the design

source — read

[garadinervi]

Italo Calvino. Guardare. Disegno, cinema, fotografia, arte, paesaggio, visioni e collezioni, Edited by Marco Belpoliti, «Oscar Moderni. Baobab», Mondadori, Milano, 2023 [Mutty, Castiglione delle Stiviere (MN)]

[dandelionjack]

WHAT IS A DREAM CITY? what it says on the tin — an urban environment that you have involuntarily visited multiple, repeated times in dreams. to be a dream city, it must not be a real-life place, whether one you have physically travelled to/lived in or one that you have seen videos of.

doesn’t need to look “alien”. mine, though some of the architecture is quite distinctive, resembles a southern european city, with most of the structures seeming 19th century

the storylines that play out and characters which feature may vary, but the setting crucially must remain the same or at least very similar. certain recurring locations must be present (buildings, streets, landmarks, a river, a bar — for me at least, but once again these locations could be anything in your personal experience).

you will find that, despite logically never having “been” here in reality, you always know where to go, as if you’re a long-term resident or at least a well-prepared tourist.

the public transport is usually weird. for me it’s mostly a winding system of subway networks, complex and misleading like a labyrinth, naturally. what’s a dream city without a maze

so, that’s enough detail for you to know which button to vote for by now. no nuance. either you drop by the dream city on the regular or you don’t.

reblog for reach. and no i don’t have a clue on what i’m planning to do with the results, thanks for asking

[exhaled-spirals]

— Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees

[fuoridalcloro]

Non credo a niente che sia facile, rapido, spontaneo, improvvisato, approssimativo. Credo alla forza di ciò che è lento, calmo, ostinato, senza fanatismi né entusiasmi. Non credo a nessuna liberazione, né individuale, né collettiva che si ottenga senza il costo d’un’autodisciplina, di un’autocostruzione, d’uno sforzo.

-Italo Calvino-

[kafkasapartment]

"Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else."

Italo Calvino, “Invisible Cities”

[undinesea]

What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.

Italo Calvino, from If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

[davidhudson]

Pier Paolo Pasolini and Italo Calvino.

[arvtisticfra]

[infugacolbarone]

Amo soprattutto Stendhal perché solo in lui tensione morale individuale, tensione storica, slancio della vita sono una cosa sola, lineare tensione romanzesca.

Amo Hemingway perché è matter of fact, understatement, volontà di felicità, tristezza.

Amo Puskin perché è limpidezza, ironia e serietà.

Amo Stevenson perché pare che voli.

Amo Conrad perché naviga l’abisso e non ci affonda.

Amo Cechov perché non va più in là di dove va.

Amo Tolstoj perché alle volte mi pare d’essere lì lì per capire come fa e invece niente.

Amo Manzoni perché fino a poco fa l’odiavo.

Amo Flaubert perché dopo di lui non si può più pensare di fare come lui.

Amo Poe dello Scarabeo d’oro.

Amo Twain di Huckleberry Finn.

Amo Kipling dei Libri della Giungla.

Amo Nievo perché l’ho riletto tante volte divertendomi come la prima.

Amo Jane Austen perché non la leggo mai ma sono contento che ci sia.

Amo Gogol perché deforma con nettezza, cattiveria e misura.

Amo Dostoevskij perché deforma con coerenza, furore e senza misura.

Amo Balzac perché è visionario.

Amo Kafka perché è realista.

Amo Maupassant perché è superficiale.

Amo la Mansfield perché è intelligente.

Amo Fitzgerald perché è insoddisfatto.

Amo Radiguet perché la giovinezza non torna più.

Amo Svevo perché bisognerà pur invecchiare.

Amo…"

- Italo Calvino, dalla prefazione a "Perché leggere i classici"

[createmesanity]

Today’s knitting and reading at the same time because I love multitasking

I’m reading If on a Winters Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino and knitting a sleeve of my Single Malt by Maxim Cyr

and yes, by kindle is propped up on Blähaj

[garadinervi]

Giulio Paolini, Untitled, (collage on paper), 1996 [Portrait of Italo Calvino taken by Sebastião Salgado; reproduction from Album Calvino, Edited by Luca Baranelli and Ernesto Ferrero, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, 1995), p. 260] [Private collection. © Giulio Paolini / Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Torino]

Cover art for: Marco Belpoliti, L'occhio di Calvino, «Saggi» 805, Einaudi, Torino, 1996