[HN Gopher] Italo Calvino, The Art of Fiction No. 130 (1992)
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       Italo Calvino, The Art of Fiction No. 130 (1992)
        
       Author : benbreen
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2021-03-09 06:01 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (theparisreview.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (theparisreview.org)
        
       | Ftuuky wrote:
       | "If on a winter's night, a traveler" and "Invisible Cities" are
       | probably his most known works but I highly recommend "Mr.
       | Palomar", it's very small and easy to read but truly a
       | mindbender.
        
       | ineedasername wrote:
       | If you enjoy Calvino then Jorge Luis Borges will likely also
       | entertain you. _The Library of Babel_ , for example, is an
       | excellent story.
        
         | eatonphil wrote:
         | Makes sense. I read Invisible Cities and really didn't care for
         | it. It seemed decently written but was just terribly
         | uninteresting. I'm trying to work through Borges' Ficciones at
         | the moment and I like it even less.
         | 
         | I wish I could enjoy them!
        
       | molbioguy wrote:
       | My favorite Calvino book is _Cosmicomics_. It 's a collection of
       | his stories that deal with a scientific principle that he weaves
       | into a beautiful fantasy story!
        
       | johncave wrote:
       | Italo Calvino is a sublime writer. One of my favourites is his
       | short story Love Far From Home -- it's funny, poignant and
       | strangely reassuring. Salman Rushdie does an excellent reading in
       | the New Yorker's fiction podcast:
       | 
       | https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction/salman-rushdie-rea...
        
       | seanhunter wrote:
       | Love Italo Calvino. For people interested in getting into it, "If
       | on a winter's night, a traveller" is probably the best place to
       | start and isn't a tough read.
        
         | bshimmin wrote:
         | I would attach a note of caution to this - having loved the
         | book myself, I gave my mother (a lady not terribly well-versed
         | in postmodern literature) a copy of _Se una notte d 'inverno un
         | viaggiatore_ and it took her quite some time to forgive me; she
         | used the words "pointless" and "stupid" several times in her
         | summary of it!
        
           | johncave wrote:
           | I also would hesitate to recommend IOAWNAT to your average
           | reader, despite thoroughly enjoying it myself. You have to
           | have a certain patience for literary tricks to really enjoy
           | it.
        
         | brianjunyinchan wrote:
         | I feel the different vignettes also provide something relatable
         | to more people than one story would
        
         | whitepoplar wrote:
         | Agreed, though I'm partial to _Invisible Cities_. ;)
        
           | ghotli wrote:
           | Came to this thread to also plug Invisible Cities. I love
           | picking up that book, reading a short prose poem and getting
           | the feels of the imagery he evokes.
           | 
           | It's my stranded on a desert island pick, and for good
           | reason.
        
           | rsync wrote:
           | I, also, love Invisible Cities and would recommend it ...
        
             | whitepoplar wrote:
             | I find it oddly comforting that the storage provider I plan
             | to use at some point in the future (just getting the hang
             | of ZFS now) loves Calvino. :-D
        
               | ericol wrote:
               | I understood that reference.
        
           | losvedir wrote:
           | I recently listened to the audiobook of Invisible Cities,
           | narrated by John Lee, and it was phenomenal. The strange
           | thing is, I actually don't think I would have cared for the
           | novel, had I read it myself, but Lee captured the sort of
           | surreal mood exquisitely, and it was very pleasant to just
           | lay back and listen to, or to have on while walking through a
           | park.
        
           | riffraff wrote:
           | I also believe Invisible Cities to be way more approachable
           | than "if on a winter's night..".
           | 
           | I absolutely loved both, but I think the latter might out off
           | some folks.
           | 
           | But given the HN audience, I feel that "Cosmicomiche" might
           | be a very good choice too!
        
       | adyavanapalli wrote:
       | My favorite short story from Italo Calvino is _The Distance of
       | the Moon_. RadioLab did an episode with it being read by Liev
       | Schreiber [1] and it 's wonderful! I believe it partly inspired a
       | Disney Pixar short by the name La Luna [2].
       | 
       | [1]:
       | https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/28257...
       | 
       | [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbuq7w3ZDUQ
        
       | ycombinete wrote:
       | My favourite thing about Calvino are his letters. Such great
       | observations, and writing. They are up there with Evelyn Waugh's
       | letters.
        
         | jbullock35 wrote:
         | Can you say more about the Calvino and Waugh letters? Do you
         | like them for beautiful prose, for lively gossip, for
         | introspection -- or what?
        
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