If on a winter's night a traveler...

[Anonymous No.12540833]

Just finished this. Thought it was good, but too reliant on the cleverness of its central gimmick, and some parts felt like second-rate Borges.
That's said, what are your favourites of the "books" found in it?

[Anonymous No.12540854]

>>12540833
*that said
I liked guy that was a meteorological observer, kaleidoscope guy and the south american ones best

[Anonymous No.12540855]

>>12540833
>it was too reliant on itself
;^) why don't you go try too hard on reddit

[Anonymous No.12540863]

>>12540833
Can anyone please identify all the authors that the pastiches in the book are based on? I got Flann Obrien and Mishima but I cannot place the others.

[Anonymous No.12540892]

>>12540855
I hope you're just pretending not to have reading comprehension.
I used the word "gimmick" for a reason, anon. The gimmick is the unusual framing and structure of the work, but there's a lot more to it than that. You could say Borges writes using "gimmicks", but I found greater depth, subtlety and meaning in his work, whereas Calvino felt like just flashy tricks for their own sake in a lot of places.
>>12540863
Was the Japanese one supposed to be Mishima? Tb h it didn't feel Japanese at all.

[Anonymous No.12540915]

>>12540863
>>12540892
The Japanese one was Kawabata

[Anonymous No.12540917]

>>12540892
It was obviously a pastiche of Mishima. I mean what about the awkward sexual content? Pure Mishima.

[Anonymous No.12540920]

"Calvino mentions Bulgakov, Kawabata, Tanizaki, Rulfo, Arguedas, Borges and Chesterton as having influenced, in various ways, the narrative style of the ten stories that comprise the book."

[Anonymous No.12540928]

>>12540915
>Kawabata

GTFO of here. Whose even heard of Kawabata?

[Anonymous No.12540935]

>>12540920
Are you seriously telling me that the Irish guy with the telescope wasn't supposed to be O'Brien?

[Anonymous No.12540951]

>>12540863
Empty Grave = Marquez (hispanic, repeating family generations)
Lines Intersect = Borges (labyrinthine, surreal quality to the kaleidoscope)
Malbork could be Chekhov I guess, but doesn't really fit to my eyes.
>>12540920
Sounds like the Japanese one was = Kawabata like>>12540915 anon said.

Any guesses what "Leaning from the steep slope" was?

[Anonymous No.12540961]

>>12540928
>who ever heard of the first Japanese guy to win a Nobel prize for literature.
Well, Calvino himself for one

[Anonymous No.12540969]

So which was the Chesterson and which was the Bulgakov?

[Anonymous No.12540981]

Calvino also cites Nabokov as a general influence.

[Anonymous No.12540995]

>>12540981
I'm assuming that's more to do with Pale Fire in metafiction aspect, and possibly the creation of Cimmeria (like Zembla, a vaguely Baltic fictional country which went through revolution and upheaval in the mid twentieth century).

[Anonymous No.12541006]

>>12540961
>Nobel Prize

lol who cares

[Anonymous No.12541017]

>>12541006
My point is just that just because you haven't heard of Kawabata doesn't mean he's not one of the best known (in the West) Japanese authors of all time.

[Anonymous No.12541053]

>>12541017
Okay, but you can't blame me for thinking that a story about a guy tripping onto a woman's breast is supposed to be Mishima.

[Anonymous No.12541058]

>>12541053
It sounds extremely kawabatean. Yes that's now officially a word.

[Anonymous No.12541068]

>>12541058
So does Mishima basically rip off his style? Because between the natural imagery and a guy awkwardly committing a sexual act, it absolutely read like Mishima to me.

[Anonymous No.12541079]

>>12541053
>>12541058
Sounds peak anime, tbqh.
Perhaps the Japanese are just sexually repressed degenerates.
>>12541058
Not Kawabatesque?

[Anonymous No.12541091]

Am finishing this today.
haven't read the last 2 novels yet but personally the Outside Malbork one and the college prof that thinks all phone calls are for him were my favorites.

I started it 2 days ago and there is one aspect of the book that seems to get little mention in the reviews and critiques I've come across. That Calvino has partially written here a work that is a meditation or ode to the act of reading.
And to me this makes it stand apart from other works that employ metafiction. Also had to bate after the Readers love making chapter

[Anonymous No.12541115]

>>12541091
What about the "Calvino's self insert cucks the reader" chapter
>book that seems to get little mention in the reviews and critiques I've come across. That Calvino has partially written here a work that is a meditation or ode to the act of reading.
Really? It usually gets taken from a 'discusses and deconstructs the act of reading' than 'ode to', but it's absolutely mentioned in what I've seen. It's kind of impossible not to, since it's the biggest theme of the book.

[Anonymous No.12541639]

>>12541115
>cucks the reader
it's the other way around for the entirety of the book

[Anonymous No.12541666]

>>12540928
Anglos were a mistake

[Anonymous No.12541760]

in a letter to Lucio Lombardo Radice (13/11/79) Calvino wrote that when he wanted to resume the existential-revolutionary atmosphere of the 1920s and 1930s he looked to Bulgakov; for the Japanese (erotic-perverted) novel to Kawabata and Tanazaki; the South American tale was inspired by Rulfo and Arguedas, while the narration full of allusions derived from Borges.
Among other things, he pointed out that the narrative mechanics recalls Chesterton's The Who Who Was Thursday

[Anonymous No.12541783]

>>12541760
Thank you anon.
The South American tale was a favourite, should I give Pedro Páramo a go?

[Anonymous No.12542145]

Is Invisible Cities meta like this or more grounded.

[Anonymous No.12542318]

>>12542145
Less meta more fantasy. But all Calvino’s books are aware of the act of reading. Invisible Cities reads almost like poetry to me, each story feels like a little meditation on something

[Anonymous No.12542777]

>>12540833
Guy outside the prison seeing metaphors in everything won for me

The one that escalated quickly into full-on Chinese cartoon porn was... unexpected

[Anonymous No.12543130]

What was the worst story? Might be because I hadn't warmed up to it, but the first one didn't do much for me.
Least favourite was probably guy hiding a dead body though.
>>12542777
That one was my favourite too, trips of God confirm. I want to know who inspired that.
What else did you expect from Japan though?

[Anonymous No.12543179]

>>12540892
You accused the book of being too reliant on the thing that makes it this book. That's retarded. You're too cynical because of the internet.

[Anonymous No.12543198]

>>12543179
>n the thing that makes it this book.
That's kind of his point

[Anonymous No.12543212]

>>12543198
>kind of his point
It's a retarded point, and furthermore he tried to dispute it himself when I levied that accusation hours ago

[Anonymous No.12543225]

>>12543212
>It's a retarded poin
You keep repeating this as if it's an explanation. It isn't. Your idea that the structure or the main idea behind a book is necessarily the focus of its artistic merit is also nonsense.

[Anonymous No.12543245]

>>12541079
Kawabatean feels more badass, almost like it was a force of nature. Kawabatesque is a bit too quirky. Btw the French use "Kafkaïen" as much as "Kafkaesque".

One could also consider Kawabataic, but I think that would only work for a culture entirely built around Kawabata's writings.

So Kawabatean is still the best choice for me.

[Anonymous No.12543256]

>>12543179
I liked what it did, don't get me wrong, I just think it needs MORE than that to elevate it to true greatness - it's got more style than substance. Not saying it doesn't have substance, because some parts are great, but at times I don't feel it's nearly as clever or deep as it seems to think it's being.
It's kinda like a musician who's a virtuoso with great technical ability, but lacks the ability to play in a manner that strikes deep at the heart, pays attention to subtleties in the music and bring out something new in the music.
If I said the musician was too reliant on flashy technical skill, I wouldn't be saying that his skill wasn't great, just that he needed to concentrate on other areas where he was lacking.

[Anonymous No.12543280]

It reminded me more of Marquez than Borges, but I can see where you got that. Parts of it also kinda recalled Murakami in a way. It was fun and neat, but overall kinda unremarkable.

[Anonymous No.12543313]

>>12543256
Did you read it in italian?

[Anonymous No.12543327]

>>12540863
>>12540915
>>12540951
Whoa whoa whoa, you guys are coming dangerously close to discussing the source material. What did you do, read the book?