why read the books :: essays research papers

It has now become clear that Italo Calvino will read to be one of this centurys major writers. In recent years, his work has been established alongside such pan-European thinkers as Barthes and Eco, particularly in the sense that his interests are polymathic. Calvino is an auditionist, a literary theorist, a writer of fiction and, to a galactic extent, a visionary. Paradoxic tot whollyyy, much of the modernity he has explored in his narratives has its roots in the simplicity of folk tales, and his own short fiction has the elemental mightiness of myth and allegory.In these evidences, however, we have a kind of summation of all this, albeit in a piecemeal form. By this I mean that inside this large collection of literary essays, Italo Calvino mixes critical judgement with literary history, and reflections on the writers art with sheer readerly enthusiasm. This powerful mix is the result of his assembling a personal canon of texts, and in that sense some of his choices reflect that idiosyncrasy which all readers have personal passions, a taste in obscure writers and, a few absolute favourites which have clearly inspired his own creativity.In the dimension of personal taste, the leaders are Dickens in Our vernacular Friend, Stendhal and Dante, but there are many more, and after an initial essay which tries to establish what a classic is, the essays range from classical to modern texts, not always in terms of accepted classical status. Some of the writers discussed may fifty-fifty merit being rediscovered.In fact, Signor Calvino is such a good critic that he sneaks in brief chatty references and even fragments of autobiography before we realise it. The case of Hemingway shows this for instance There was a judgment of conviction for me when - and for many others, those who are more or less my contemporaries - Hemingway was a god. The essay then proceeds to show Hemingways appeal as rise as his limitations.The books title is something of a misnomer in th is respect, because the question is tackled directly in the first essay. Then a certain enquiry about the constitution of a classic is assumed as the author proceeds to explain the gamut of literary achievement in virtually every prominent form. However, the defining essay does lead to the interesting proposition that A classic is a work which persists as background noise even when a present that is totally discordant with it holds sway.