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/lit/ - Literature

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13083007 No.13083007 [Reply] [Original]

I got to Leaning from the Steep Slope without problem and then my mind got completely fucked. I walked away for a week or two then continued on to chapter four but that’s even more difficult.
I’ve never had much trouble understanding Calvino in the past, and when I have I’m usually able to figure everything out with a quick reread or two. Am I just getting dumber anons, or is this bit just more dense than the rest of the book?
More importantly, if you guys understand it could you help a brain/lit/ out and guide me in the right direction? Thanks in advance, anons

>> No.13083494

Not even baiting but I'm surprised you're finding it that difficult. I really enjoyed this book but I thought it was a light read, as far as lit-worthy books go (part of why I liked it desu). I haven't read it in a while though. Still, my guess is you're overthinking it.

>> No.13083498

>>13083494
this. I just enjoyed it a lot, but I was just reading it for pleasure. What is difficult about it?

>> No.13083592
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13083592

Calvino is comfy. I recently started reading Invisible Cities and do not regret it.

>> No.13083608

>>13083007
It is probably his most difficult book, but it is not terribly difficult, you probably just got lost. It happened to me when I first read it, never figured out why I got lost, just did, started back at the beginning and had no issues through its entirety.

>> No.13083617

>>13083592
Just got Invisible Cities in the mail, looking forward to sitting down with it someday soon

>> No.13083650

>>13083494
>>13083498
Idk man. I never had any problems with Invisible Cities or Cosmicosmics, and even this was a super easy read until Leaning from the Steep Slope. I feel like it’s easier if I just skim and don’t look into it that much, but I can’t bring myself to do that. What the hell is being betrayed? What does that weather meter guy have to do with all of this? What the hell is the professor talking about in chapter 4 when he’s talking about languages of the dead and silence of the living? Did I hit my head and turn into a brainlet over the weekend or am I just missing something that would help me understand it all?
>>13083608
I still know what’s going on relative to the plot and all that... it’s just the themes that I can’t decipher.
>>13083592
Good shit anon. I wrote a 50 page essay on Invisible Cities in highschool. By far my favorite book. Calvino even wrote his own essay about it, “On Invisible Cities,” which is worth checking out when you finish

>> No.13083654

>>13083592
>>13083617
I read it on a couch on my library and I kept drifting to sleep, not because it was boring, but because it put me in an almost child-like state, like I was a little kid being told a story by my dad lying on my bed.
Extremely comfy, do not read while operating heavy machinery.

>> No.13083659

>>13083650
I think that story generally was mocking the paranoia driven plots of post-modernist literature.
It's been a year since I read it but I thought it was a parody of pynchon and the like. I don't know if Calvino ever actually read Pynchon but it makes sense to me.

>> No.13083700

When it comes to his short stories. Would you guys start with Cosmicosmics or Marcovaldo?

>> No.13083727

What the fuck is with this dude and inserting all those weird sexual fantasies. I couldn't believe the part where he literally cucks the Japanese guy or the random sex with the lady

>> No.13083750

>>13083727
Every single man has sexual fantasies. I can not see why you find that so weird.

>> No.13083778

>>13083659
I really do not see that, at most it is just that sort done in his own unique style. It would be a complete failure and self indulgent as a parody and not his style at all.

>> No.13083859

>>13083007
It's a guy starting books and never getting to finish them. What's difficult?

>> No.13083874

>>13083700
Sotto il Sole Giaguaro

>> No.13084331

>>13083859
The words in between

>> No.13084501

>>13083592
I started reading it in highschool and I hated it.
Many years have passed and I still have it with the bookmark and everything, but I can't seem to find a reason to restart reading it.
The other books of Calvino are way more interesting and comfy in my opinion.

>> No.13084508
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13084508

>>13084501
Nvm bookmark is gone
but here it is

>> No.13084940

>>13084508
You own it, just read it anon. The interactions and dialogues between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo are some of the coziest passages Calvino’s ever written.

>> No.13085721

>nobody ITT explains to OP that each of the books the narrator starts are parodies of specific authors and works
>quite possibly nobody has even realized it
Jesus fucking Christ. The level of this place.

>> No.13087527

>>13084940
Imagine if it was between Genghis Khan and Alberto Barbosa.

>> No.13088892

>>13087527
Truly, it would have been ahead of its time