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Why Read the Classics?
New Memos for the Millennium
Italo Calvino was the Scheherezade of novelists. Endlessly inventive, suspenseful, and exotic, he refused to tie things up and conclude. Reading Calvino, we are like his Mr. Palomar swimming after the sun's reflection on the "At every stroke of his, it retreats, and never allows him to overtake it." Instead, "The swimming ego of Mr. Palomar is immersed in a disembodied world, intersections of force fields, vectoral diagrams, bands of position that converge, diverge, break up."
Calvino's world is a warm, illuminated bath of possibilities. One of the multiple narrators of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler has this to say about what Calvino termed multiplicity: "I'm producing too many stories at once because what I want is for you to feel, around the story, a saturation of other stories that I could tell and maybe will tell&a space full of stories that perhaps is simply my lifetime." If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a book especially reminiscent of the 1001 nights; with its ten different novels suspended in the midst of their telling, it is most charming where it ought to be most frustrating.
But whereas Scheherezade told her Sultan endless stories in order to preserve her life, some of Calvino's best work has been published since his death in 1985. Both Six Memos for the Millennium, a brilliant résumé of his aesthetics, and the novel Mr. Palomar were published posthumously. The latest English-language addition to the Calvino canon is Why Read the Classics?,, a book of literary criticism smoothly translated from the Italian by Martin McLaughlin. Why Read the Classics? is a collection of occasional piecesreviews and appreciationsand cannot be counted among the author's major works, but it brims with Calvino's customary intelligence and lucidity. Its title essay is particularly impressive in its offhand way, offering in six pages more brio and good sense than 20 years of American culture wars have been able to bring to the same question.
Calvino offers 14 definitions of a classic. The definitions are mordant "1. The classics are those books about which you usually hear people 'I'm rereading...', and never 'I'm reading...' "but they are also "10. A classic is the term given to any book which comes to represent the whole universe, a book on a par with ancient talismans." Still, the great books are not to be read with excessive "It is no use reading classics out of a sense of duty or respect, we should only read them for love." As to which books constitute the classics, they are those books "to which you cannot remain indifferent." The remaining essays of Why Read the Classics? give us an idea of which books most affected Calvino himself. Of course they also find him celebrating in other authors virtues displayed by his own works; the description of Ovid's Metamorphoses could stand at the head of Calvino's Collected "Only by accepting into his poem all the tales and the intentions behind them which flow in every direction, pushing and shoving to squeeze them into the ordered ranks of the epic's hexameters, only in this way will the poet be sure of not serving a partial design but the living multiplicity that does not exclude any known or unknown god."
"Ordered ranks" is a decisive phrase in this credo. Calvino's multiplicity is never a chaos. For all their playfulness, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and Invisible Cities are fuguelike mathematical elaborations. In the latter book, Marco Polo often recounts his fantastic travels to Kublai Khan in the language of a scientist. Of a city suspended above the earth on stilts, he "There are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of that they hate the earth; that they respect it so much that they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downward they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence." Such beautiful writing not only has deservedly become classic in itself, but it exemplifies the classical rhetorical virtues Calvino exalted in his Six Memos for the Next lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity. He does not mention grace, but it is one of the special features of his work that extreme self-consciousness about reading and writing becomes, rather than a source of awkwardness, an embodiment of assurance and ease. Calvino was at once a metafictionalist, at home in the postmodern welter of possibilities, and someone whom Cicero probably would have read with great pleasure and recognition. The publication of Why Read the Classics? provides a fine occasion for discovering or returning to Calvi...
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1991
670 people are currently reading
11674 people want to read
About the author
Italo Calvino
548 books8,872 followersItalo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. He was a journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979).
His style is not easy to classify; much of his writing has an air reminiscent to that of fantastical fairy tales (Our Ancestors, Cosmicomics), although sometimes his writing is more "realistic" and in the scenic mode of observation (Difficult Loves, for example). Some of his writing has been called postmodern, reflecting on literature and the act of reading, while some has been labeled magical realist, others fables, others simply "modern". He wrote: "My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language."
His style is not easy to classify; much of his writing has an air reminiscent to that of fantastical fairy tales (Our Ancestors, Cosmicomics), although sometimes his writing is more "realistic" and in the scenic mode of observation (Difficult Loves, for example). Some of his writing has been called postmodern, reflecting on literature and the act of reading, while some has been labeled magical realist, others fables, others simply "modern". He wrote: "My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 343 reviews
March 9, 2015
You start your reading of Calvino’s explorations. You do this mainly to get to know a wonderful list of classics to tackle, of the thoughts of a loved author, and to know of how to approach these sometimes daunting works. After the masterful first essay which defines ‘classics’, you realize that Calvino is up to something here. You look at the long list of books and realize that too many of them fall in the invented category of ‘personal classics’ (‘his own classics’ in other words), the choice of which are artfully explained away by his irrefutable first essay. You are now sure that the book would be an interesting window to Calvino’s literary world and his evolution but not to the vast classical education you were hoping for from the book. You put off the book many times over the year but eventually get back to it.
But as you finally read through the rest of the essays, you realize that it is more fun than anticipated to hear Calvino talk of the books you have already read and enjoyed and just infuriating to read of ones that you haven’t. So you quickly buy the books as Calvino talks of them. Then you vow to read again his short essays on Anabasis or Pliny before you delve into these books, which might have been postponed indefinitely if not for Calvino’s gentle (but at the same time caustic) coaxing. Of course, you know that you would have to read the essays before you read your new acquisitions and then again a month after the reading is past just to compare experiences with Calvino, which as you already know is great fun.
You also begin to discern a few jarring notes… but they do not put you off - a reading life is not complete without an explanation of the spirit that animates the reading quest. Calvino’s obsession with how history and its enactment is to be viewed begins to shine through. And, sometimes to your disappointment, he examines many of the authors primarily from the lens of how they tried to invent history and their own conceptions of it - slightly distorting his analysis in the process but with a distinct purpose. To you, some of these extrapolations seem like inventions but, it becomes difficult to draw the line between serious experiment and play. You console yourself with the fact that, luckily, Calvino’s obsession is a favorite pastime of your own as well.
In the end, you scribble a quick one line review before moving eagerly to the heady pile of books that Calvino has collected for you on your desk: This book is a treasure.
A Goodreads Corollary:
Classics are those books which when you rate them, you only rate yourselves.
August 23, 2023
From Homer, Ovid, Xenophon, Stendhal, and Balzac, to Defoe, Dickens, Conrad, Pasternak, and Hemingway, Calvino, with fascinating insight gives, his take on these writers, among others, as to why their 'classics' are precisely just that: classics.
Calvino resounds with a deep sense of wonder, and writes wholeheartedly in a chirpy unpretentious manner, of which, it's clear to see just what his favourite classics meant to him. He lays out his reasoning in fourteen key points at the start of the book before we actually get to writers.
Three for example are -
'We use the word “classics” for those books that are treasured by those who have read and loved them; but they are treasured no less by those who have the luck to read them for the first time in the best conditions to enjoy them,
'The classics are the books that come down to us bearing upon them the traces of readings previous to ours, and bringing in their wake the traces they themselves have left on the culture or cultures they have passed through'
'A classic is a book that comes before other classics; but anyone who has read the others first, and then reads this one, instantly recognizes its place in the family tree'
Some of the essays on offer are only a few pages long, while others are more expansive, and while is it was great reading of the writers mentioned above, my particular interest was with fellow Italians - Cesare Pavese, Eugenio Montale, and Carlo Emilio Gadda.
Calvino wrote some superb stuff on Montale & Gadda, but to my disappointment, no sooner had I started reading his thoughts on Pavese (one of fave writers), it was all over in a flash, which for me, was a shame. It maybe didn't help that I hadn't read some of the famous classics he was referring to. The likes of - The Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe, Our Mutual Friend, and The Charterhouse of Parma still have yet to sit comfortably in my lap. There is a good chance they won't ever end up there either. As who in their right mind can say they've read every single classic on the planet!
These literary essays were thought-provoking, invigorating, and a real pleasure to read, but I'm going for four stars over five because some of them were simply just too short.
July 16, 2022
"Un clásico es un libro que nunca termina de decir lo que tiene que decir."
Parece mentira y a la vez me da vergüenza reconocer que yo, un lector especializado en reseñar clásicos, recién hoy haya terminado de leer este libro clave del gran autor italiano Italo Calvino.
“Por qué leer los clásicos” es un maravilloso recorrido del Calvino lector por todos aquellos libros que de alguna u otra manera lo marcaron en su vida literaria.
De la misma manera que Jorge Luis Borges en “Otras inquisiciones”, otro libro de un gran autor, precisamente al que Calvino le dedica todo un capítulo, vamos encontrándonos con todos esos autores clásicos que siguen asombrándonos con sus libros extraordinarios.
La lista de autores y libros que desfilan por este volumen es impresionante.
Calvino nos detalla a la perfección las características más sobresalientes de la “Odisea” de Homero, Jenofonte y su “Anábasis”, ”Las metamorfosis” de Ovidio, el “Tirant lo Blanc”, uno de los libros preferidos del Quijote, la estructura del “Orlando Furioso” de Ariosto, Cyrano de Bergerac, el “Robinson Crusoe” de Daniel Defoe, un acercamiento al “Cándido”, de Voltaire, la estructura de la gran novela de Denis Diderot en “Jacques el fatalista”, la literatura de Stendhal y su novela “La cartuja de Parma” destinada a los nuevos lectores, un profundo análisis de la ciudad en las novelas de Balzac, una radiografía a la anteúltima novela de Charles Dickens llamado “Nuestro amigo en común” y la impecable reseña de los “Tres cuentos” de Gustave Flaubert, los “Dos húsares” de Lev Tolstói, “El hombre que corrompió a Hadleyburg” de Mark Twain, “Daisy Miller” de Henry James, ”El pabellón en las dunas Robert Louis Stevenson, “Doctor Zhivago” de Boris Pasternak, y sendos ensayos biográficos de Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Queneau, Césare Pavese y como había comentado antes, un profundo detalle de la obra de nuestro querido Jorge Luis Borges.
Hay más, porque este libro parece inagotable.
En fin, si lo que uno como lector desea es aproximarse a los grandes clásicos de la literatura, este es el libro indicado para hacerlo, y también como comentara previamente es indispensable seguir con “Inquisiciones” y especialmente “Otras inquisiciones” de Borges y de esta manera y gracias a estos maestros, tendremos un entendimiento cabal en lo que a literatura se refiere.
Parece mentira y a la vez me da vergüenza reconocer que yo, un lector especializado en reseñar clásicos, recién hoy haya terminado de leer este libro clave del gran autor italiano Italo Calvino.
“Por qué leer los clásicos” es un maravilloso recorrido del Calvino lector por todos aquellos libros que de alguna u otra manera lo marcaron en su vida literaria.
De la misma manera que Jorge Luis Borges en “Otras inquisiciones”, otro libro de un gran autor, precisamente al que Calvino le dedica todo un capítulo, vamos encontrándonos con todos esos autores clásicos que siguen asombrándonos con sus libros extraordinarios.
La lista de autores y libros que desfilan por este volumen es impresionante.
Calvino nos detalla a la perfección las características más sobresalientes de la “Odisea” de Homero, Jenofonte y su “Anábasis”, ”Las metamorfosis” de Ovidio, el “Tirant lo Blanc”, uno de los libros preferidos del Quijote, la estructura del “Orlando Furioso” de Ariosto, Cyrano de Bergerac, el “Robinson Crusoe” de Daniel Defoe, un acercamiento al “Cándido”, de Voltaire, la estructura de la gran novela de Denis Diderot en “Jacques el fatalista”, la literatura de Stendhal y su novela “La cartuja de Parma” destinada a los nuevos lectores, un profundo análisis de la ciudad en las novelas de Balzac, una radiografía a la anteúltima novela de Charles Dickens llamado “Nuestro amigo en común” y la impecable reseña de los “Tres cuentos” de Gustave Flaubert, los “Dos húsares” de Lev Tolstói, “El hombre que corrompió a Hadleyburg” de Mark Twain, “Daisy Miller” de Henry James, ”El pabellón en las dunas Robert Louis Stevenson, “Doctor Zhivago” de Boris Pasternak, y sendos ensayos biográficos de Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Queneau, Césare Pavese y como había comentado antes, un profundo detalle de la obra de nuestro querido Jorge Luis Borges.
Hay más, porque este libro parece inagotable.
En fin, si lo que uno como lector desea es aproximarse a los grandes clásicos de la literatura, este es el libro indicado para hacerlo, y también como comentara previamente es indispensable seguir con “Inquisiciones” y especialmente “Otras inquisiciones” de Borges y de esta manera y gracias a estos maestros, tendremos un entendimiento cabal en lo que a literatura se refiere.
May 5, 2017
Italo Calvino, in his Why Read the Classics?, expresses it best:
8) A classic does not necessarily teach us anything we did not know before. In a classic we sometimes discover something we have always known (or thought we knew), but without knowing that this author said it first, or at least is associated with it in a special way. And this, too, is a surprise that gives a lot of pleasure, such as we always gain from the discovery of an origin, a relationship, an affinity. From all this we may derive a definition of this type:
9) The classics are books that we find all the more new, fresh, and unexpected upon reading, the more we thought we knew them from hearing them talked about.
Naturally, this only happens when a classic really works as such—that is, when it establishes a personal rapport with the reader. If the spark doesn’t come, that’s a pity; but we do not read the classics out of duty or respect, but only out of love. Except at school. And school should enable you to know, either well or badly, a certain number of classics among which—or in reference to which—you can then choose your classics. School is obliged to give you the instruments needed to make a choice, but the choices that count are those that occur outside and after school.
8) A classic does not necessarily teach us anything we did not know before. In a classic we sometimes discover something we have always known (or thought we knew), but without knowing that this author said it first, or at least is associated with it in a special way. And this, too, is a surprise that gives a lot of pleasure, such as we always gain from the discovery of an origin, a relationship, an affinity. From all this we may derive a definition of this type:
9) The classics are books that we find all the more new, fresh, and unexpected upon reading, the more we thought we knew them from hearing them talked about.
Naturally, this only happens when a classic really works as such—that is, when it establishes a personal rapport with the reader. If the spark doesn’t come, that’s a pity; but we do not read the classics out of duty or respect, but only out of love. Except at school. And school should enable you to know, either well or badly, a certain number of classics among which—or in reference to which—you can then choose your classics. School is obliged to give you the instruments needed to make a choice, but the choices that count are those that occur outside and after school.
January 30, 2019
Ο Καλβίνο δεν είναι μόνο σημαντικός συγγραφέας, αλλά και ικανότατος δοκιμιογράφος / λογοτεχνικός κριτικός, όπως φαίνεται στο εν λόγω βιβλίο.
Όχι, λοιπόν, καμία απορία δεν είχα "Γιατί να διαβάζουμε τους κλασικούς", καθώς στην τρέχουσα φάση της ζωής μου, το ερώτημά μου είναι "Γιατί να διαβάζουμε οτιδήποτε άλλο πλην των κλασικών".
Εντούτοις, ο εξαίρετος αυτός πνευματικός άνθρωπος δίνει τη δική του ερμηνεία και ανάγνωση σε έργα του Ομήρου, του Οβιδίου, του Αριόστο, αλλά και Φλωμπέρ, Πάστερνακ κ.ο.κ.
Και αυτό αναζητεί κάποιος/όποιος. Την προσωπική οπτική, το βλέμμα που επικεντρώνει "εκεί" και όχι "αλλού", όχι απαραίτητα το σύνολο, αλλά το επιμέρους. Αλλά εκεί ακριβώς κρύβεται η τέχνη: στα συστατικά της μέρη, στη ματιά, στον ρυθμό, στη δομή και όχι στις μεγάλες ιδέες που έρχονται και παρέρχονται. Και ο Καλβίνο διαπρέπει και σε αυτό.
https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2019/01/...
Όχι, λοιπόν, καμία απορία δεν είχα "Γιατί να διαβάζουμε τους κλασικούς", καθώς στην τρέχουσα φάση της ζωής μου, το ερώτημά μου είναι "Γιατί να διαβάζουμε οτιδήποτε άλλο πλην των κλασικών".
Εντούτοις, ο εξαίρετος αυτός πνευματικός άνθρωπος δίνει τη δική του ερμηνεία και ανάγνωση σε έργα του Ομήρου, του Οβιδίου, του Αριόστο, αλλά και Φλωμπέρ, Πάστερνακ κ.ο.κ.
Και αυτό αναζητεί κάποιος/όποιος. Την προσωπική οπτική, το βλέμμα που επικεντρώνει "εκεί" και όχι "αλλού", όχι απαραίτητα το σύνολο, αλλά το επιμέρους. Αλλά εκεί ακριβώς κρύβεται η τέχνη: στα συστατικά της μέρη, στη ματιά, στον ρυθμό, στη δομή και όχι στις μεγάλες ιδέες που έρχονται και παρέρχονται. Και ο Καλβίνο διαπρέπει και σε αυτό.
https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2019/01/...
September 6, 2020
A bundle full of love for literature, but at times quite hermetic and jarringly focussed on works from men
4) Every rereading of a classic is as much a voyage of discovery as the first reading.
5) Every reading of a classic is in fact a rereading.
6) A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
9) The classics are books that we find all the more new, fresh, and unexpected upon reading, the more we thought we knew them from hearing them talked about.
11) Your classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you to define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him.
A collection of essays on literature from Italo Calvino. Especially the first 14 statements on what a classic read should or could be is brilliant. Some of them I’ve included above, you can find the rest via below link:
http://www.openculture.com/2014/08/it...
Interestingly enough in this essay Calvino already notes that literature has it hard versus the buzz of modern life in a tv age (and before the internet).
The 30 odd essays that follow are on classics as defined by Calvino. The pieces, introductions, commentaries in newspapers and obituaries, are put in a chronologic order and range from Homer to Cesare Pavese, with special fondness for French and Italian authors.
Jarringly, despite a nod to Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, not one female writer comes back in an essay, and besides one Persian author, the same goes for none Western writers.
The pieces are highly cerebral and often insightful.
The Odyssee for instance is presented as a tale of restoration, a tale not unlike the abandoned princesses who turn into stepdaughters, before being made once more into a princess in fairytales. The unreliability of Odysseus, and how his tale can just be a story to explain away in an acceptable manner his absence, is an other perspective brought up by Calvino.
The possibility of older, more supernatural mythology clashing and being integrated into then “modern” hero tales like the The Iliad is an other view I never thought of while reading Homer.
The essays put behind each other shows a kind of progression in literature till about Stendhal and can serve as a good intro to Western literature development till that point.
Orlando Furioso triggered my interest, and Galileo Galilei dissing Acrimboldo is also a new thing for me. The perspective on Cyrano de Bergerac as 17th century sf writer, predicting amongst others gramophones, DNA and supernova’s made me curious. Also the way Calvino writes about Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges and Raymond Queneau intrigued me.
In general it is nice to get some background on the setting of the writers and how this influenced their books. Interestingly, Calvino often doesn’t pick the more known works of the writers. Sometimes the picks are so obscure, like a nautical non-fiction from Joseph Conrad instead of Heart of Darkness, that it feels a bit show off erudite like from Calvino’s side.
The bundle is sometimes not very inviting at times, maybe also because Italian poetry is not my thing. The love for literature is however clearly present and I can imagine myself returning to this bundle when I end up picking up some of the books Calvino writes about in Why Read the Classics?.
4) Every rereading of a classic is as much a voyage of discovery as the first reading.
5) Every reading of a classic is in fact a rereading.
6) A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
9) The classics are books that we find all the more new, fresh, and unexpected upon reading, the more we thought we knew them from hearing them talked about.
11) Your classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you to define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him.
A collection of essays on literature from Italo Calvino. Especially the first 14 statements on what a classic read should or could be is brilliant. Some of them I’ve included above, you can find the rest via below link:
http://www.openculture.com/2014/08/it...
Interestingly enough in this essay Calvino already notes that literature has it hard versus the buzz of modern life in a tv age (and before the internet).
The 30 odd essays that follow are on classics as defined by Calvino. The pieces, introductions, commentaries in newspapers and obituaries, are put in a chronologic order and range from Homer to Cesare Pavese, with special fondness for French and Italian authors.
Jarringly, despite a nod to Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, not one female writer comes back in an essay, and besides one Persian author, the same goes for none Western writers.
The pieces are highly cerebral and often insightful.
The Odyssee for instance is presented as a tale of restoration, a tale not unlike the abandoned princesses who turn into stepdaughters, before being made once more into a princess in fairytales. The unreliability of Odysseus, and how his tale can just be a story to explain away in an acceptable manner his absence, is an other perspective brought up by Calvino.
The possibility of older, more supernatural mythology clashing and being integrated into then “modern” hero tales like the The Iliad is an other view I never thought of while reading Homer.
The essays put behind each other shows a kind of progression in literature till about Stendhal and can serve as a good intro to Western literature development till that point.
Orlando Furioso triggered my interest, and Galileo Galilei dissing Acrimboldo is also a new thing for me. The perspective on Cyrano de Bergerac as 17th century sf writer, predicting amongst others gramophones, DNA and supernova’s made me curious. Also the way Calvino writes about Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges and Raymond Queneau intrigued me.
In general it is nice to get some background on the setting of the writers and how this influenced their books. Interestingly, Calvino often doesn’t pick the more known works of the writers. Sometimes the picks are so obscure, like a nautical non-fiction from Joseph Conrad instead of Heart of Darkness, that it feels a bit show off erudite like from Calvino’s side.
The bundle is sometimes not very inviting at times, maybe also because Italian poetry is not my thing. The love for literature is however clearly present and I can imagine myself returning to this bundle when I end up picking up some of the books Calvino writes about in Why Read the Classics?.
June 12, 2019
I did not read every word of this book about books as I have not read more than a few of the classics discussed...but I still loved it.
The first chapter is Calvino's fourteen point definition of a "classic" (with elaborations after each point). I copied it out word for word (including that wonderful word "pulviscular") into my own Notebook of Books (it has manatees on the cover) so that I can read this perfect rendering of all I have ever felt for all of literature over and over again in my own hand.
Then, in thirty-five short essays, Calvino shares his thoughts on the classics that he himself, holds dear. (I'm making a Goodreads shelf of his selections.) No women. A lot of Italians, a lot of French, one Persian I hadn't heard of before - Nezami's Haft Peikar - and bookskimmers beware, the writer Cyrano de Bergerac, NOT the play by Rostand. Calvino loves Dr. Zhivago (the longest piece), and Ariosto, Stendhal, Gadda, and Montale each get TWO essays. They are in chronological order and begin with The Odyssey and end with Pavese's The Moon and the Bonfire. No Shakespeare, no Dante, no religious texts, and as I said no women -- but still all a pleasure.
The first chapter is Calvino's fourteen point definition of a "classic" (with elaborations after each point). I copied it out word for word (including that wonderful word "pulviscular") into my own Notebook of Books (it has manatees on the cover) so that I can read this perfect rendering of all I have ever felt for all of literature over and over again in my own hand.
Then, in thirty-five short essays, Calvino shares his thoughts on the classics that he himself, holds dear. (I'm making a Goodreads shelf of his selections.) No women. A lot of Italians, a lot of French, one Persian I hadn't heard of before - Nezami's Haft Peikar - and bookskimmers beware, the writer Cyrano de Bergerac, NOT the play by Rostand. Calvino loves Dr. Zhivago (the longest piece), and Ariosto, Stendhal, Gadda, and Montale each get TWO essays. They are in chronological order and begin with The Odyssey and end with Pavese's The Moon and the Bonfire. No Shakespeare, no Dante, no religious texts, and as I said no women -- but still all a pleasure.
July 11, 2020
با مطالعۀ این کتاب، میتوان به حقیقت سرچشمههای ذهنی ایتالو کالوینو پی برد. منظور من ارتباط این کتاب با کتاب دیگر او «کمدیهای کیهانی» است. کالوینو از سنت قصهگویی و روایت شرقی بهره میگیرد. دلیل این گرایش، علاقۀ وی به سنت قصهگویی هزار و یک شب و توجه و استقبال از هفتپیکر نظامیست. در این کتاب مقاله و گفتاری در چند و چون روایت و چند همسری شخصیت بهرام در هفتپیکر وجود دارد و کالوینو آن را جالبتر و متفاوتتر از الگوهای روایتی غرب میداند. بخش اعظم کنشگری و خلاقیت او در تخیل، از چند چهرۀ برجسته در علوم عقلی و تخیلی نشات گرفته است. نخستین چهره، دانشمند و منجم مشهور، گالیله است که کالوینو بطور محرز، تحت تاثیر نظریههای او بخصوص در کتاب استعاره طبیعت است. او هم به شگفتی نظام الفبا توجه دارد و هم به گستردگی قلمرو علم و تخیل. و شاید تخیل برای او گیراتر و جذابتر از علم است. به همین منظور او به سراغ نویسندهای دیگر میرود. سیرانو دو برژراک، نویسندهای رِند و ولنگار که گاه به سمت و سوی تخیل میرود و گاه تمسخر. کالوینو در کتاب کمدیهای کیهانی بطور مستقیم تحت تاثیر کتاب «داستان مضحک احوالات و امپراتوریهای ماه» سیرانو دوبرژراک است. کسی که به کمک یک متقدم (خنوخ) در ماه قدم زده و زندگی مردم آنجا را روایت میکند. نظام خورشید مرکزی جدیدی ارائه داده و حتی حرکت کره زمین را نیز بازتعریف میکند. کالوینو این کتاب را سرآغاز کتاب سفرهای گالیور میداند و با توجه به بخشهای نقل شده از این کتاب، تحلیل درستی مینماید.
مابقی کتاب، مقالههایی در مورد چندین نویسنده و شاعر مختلف است که کالوینو در طی سالهای مطالعاتی خود بدانها توجه است. در خلال نقد و تحلیل چهرههای ادبی جهان، کالوینو نیمنگاهی به سیر ترجمۀ آثار به زبان ایتالیایی و همچنین عملکرد ناشران دارد.
99/04/21
مابقی کتاب، مقالههایی در مورد چندین نویسنده و شاعر مختلف است که کالوینو در طی سالهای مطالعاتی خود بدانها توجه است. در خلال نقد و تحلیل چهرههای ادبی جهان، کالوینو نیمنگاهی به سیر ترجمۀ آثار به زبان ایتالیایی و همچنین عملکرد ناشران دارد.
99/04/21
January 17, 2015
کتاب به شدت خواندنی است. به معنای واقعی کلمه موجب انتقال لذت خواندن آثار کلاسیک به خواننده می شود. اما افسوس و صد افسوس که ترجمه ی بد اثر را در موارد بسیاری نابود کرده است. جمله بندی های نامشخص و جملات تاخوانا به کرات در هر صفحه تکرار می شوند. تعجب انگیز است که ویراستاران اجازه ی چاپ این کتاب با این کل را داده اند... حیرت انگیز اینکه چاپی که من می خوندم چاپ چهارم بود و این کمال بی خیالیه که کسی به فکر بهتر کردن کار هم نیست...
آن بخشی از کتاب که برای من بیش از همه جالب و افسون گر بود، شامل "آسمان، انسان، فیل"، "کتاب بزرگ طبیعت"، "سیرانو"، "رابینسون کروزوئه"، "جیاماریا اورتس"، بخش هایی از "یوجیبنیو مونتاله"، "فرانسیس پونژگ، "ریمون کونو" ( علی رغم ابهام های آزاردهنده ی بخش های مربوط به هگل، طنز و ... ) می شود.
در مرتبه ی بعد، "چرا باید کلاسیک ها را خواند"، " گزنفون"، "تیران سپید"، "ژروم کاردان"، "دنی دیدرو" ( با وجود ابهامات آزاردهنده )، "چارلز دیکنز"، "ناخداهای کنراد"، "پاسترناک و انقلاب"، "آن ماجرای قاراشمیش خیابان مرولانا" و "همینگوی و ما" هم جالب بودند.
اما "مقدمه"، "گی دو موپاسان"، "هنری جیمز"، "یویجینیو مونتاله" و "خورخه لوئیس بورخس" چنان غرق ابهام و گنگی بودند که کاملا بی استفاده می ماندند. به جز مونتاله آن سه تای دیگر چنان به نظر می آمدند که گویی به زبای بیگانه نوشته شده اند. نویسنده و مترجم نوشته را با هم به چنان سطحی از ابهام رسانیده بودند که خواندن و نخواندن دیگر هم ارز بود. به جز این بخش ها تقریبا در هر بخشی بندهای گنگ و نامشخص یافت می شد.
آن بخشی از کتاب که برای من بیش از همه جالب و افسون گر بود، شامل "آسمان، انسان، فیل"، "کتاب بزرگ طبیعت"، "سیرانو"، "رابینسون کروزوئه"، "جیاماریا اورتس"، بخش هایی از "یوجیبنیو مونتاله"، "فرانسیس پونژگ، "ریمون کونو" ( علی رغم ابهام های آزاردهنده ی بخش های مربوط به هگل، طنز و ... ) می شود.
در مرتبه ی بعد، "چرا باید کلاسیک ها را خواند"، " گزنفون"، "تیران سپید"، "ژروم کاردان"، "دنی دیدرو" ( با وجود ابهامات آزاردهنده )، "چارلز دیکنز"، "ناخداهای کنراد"، "پاسترناک و انقلاب"، "آن ماجرای قاراشمیش خیابان مرولانا" و "همینگوی و ما" هم جالب بودند.
اما "مقدمه"، "گی دو موپاسان"، "هنری جیمز"، "یویجینیو مونتاله" و "خورخه لوئیس بورخس" چنان غرق ابهام و گنگی بودند که کاملا بی استفاده می ماندند. به جز مونتاله آن سه تای دیگر چنان به نظر می آمدند که گویی به زبای بیگانه نوشته شده اند. نویسنده و مترجم نوشته را با هم به چنان سطحی از ابهام رسانیده بودند که خواندن و نخواندن دیگر هم ارز بود. به جز این بخش ها تقریبا در هر بخشی بندهای گنگ و نامشخص یافت می شد.
August 12, 2020
127th book of 2020.
I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time: It is a book that has managed to elude me, by being hard to get hold of or else expensive to get hold of. I am in debt to my old university housemate who bought and gifted me this. Despite wracking my brain for a Calvino related anecdote involving us, I cannot think of one. The only thing that comes to mind is reading my first ever Calvino, Invisible Cities, whilst lying on my bed in our old house in Chichester. So can give only my thanks; it was worth it.
- Italo Calvino
All that can be done is for each one of us to invest our own ideal library for our classics; and I would say that one half of it should consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us, and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us. We should also leave a section of empty spaces for surprises and chance discoveries.
Calvino writes with grace in both his fictions and his essays. He is a fantastic writer in the fact I believe he is quite multifaceted, and by that I also mean that my own view of him is multifaceted. My lecturer referred to him once as being ‘icy’ – a term I have adopted as my own in reference to him. In fact, the full quote, as I have quoted before in my The Baron in the Trees review: “An icy postmodernist”, whom one “admires more than enjoys”. In some cases, I would agree. I am in awe of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, but my enjoyment when reading it is another matter entirely. Any iciness, postmodernist-ness, is void here – what is left is Calvino at his intelligent and most graceful self.
The first essay is the title essay, and Calvino attempts to define a ‘classic’ novel, which ironically, his own novels fall into, in my opinion. He proposes 14 definitions, headings, and then further expansion into several; my favourite headings are:
5. A classic is a book which even when we read it for the first time gives the sense of rereading something we have read before.
6. A classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers.
9. Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.
After the title essay, in a further 35 essays, Calvino journeys through many essays on a number of writers and novels. He covers Conrad, Hemingway, Borges, Stevenson, James, Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Homer, Dafoe and more. Though I would only recommend these essays to readers particularly interested in the writers, Calvino’s thoughts on them and their style and influence, or simply in the grace and ease of his essay writing in general. Even essays concerning writers I was not aware of, or else uninterested in, I found great enjoyment through Calvino’s prose. The essays are dated between the 60s and the 80s. Of course, the most interesting essays for me were about writers I care for and read: Hemingway, Borges, Twain, Conrad, etc. The essays that surprised me the most were on Gadda and Pliny.
I considered adding quotes and thoughts on Calvino’s thoughts on other writers, but for one, I’d spoil it, and for another, it would end up being too like a Borges story, wouldn’t it? My thoughts, on Calvino’s thoughts, on someone else. Or even, sometimes, my thoughts, on Calvino’s thoughts, on another writer’s thoughts, on a final writer. We don’t have time.
I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time: It is a book that has managed to elude me, by being hard to get hold of or else expensive to get hold of. I am in debt to my old university housemate who bought and gifted me this. Despite wracking my brain for a Calvino related anecdote involving us, I cannot think of one. The only thing that comes to mind is reading my first ever Calvino, Invisible Cities, whilst lying on my bed in our old house in Chichester. So can give only my thanks; it was worth it.
- Italo Calvino
All that can be done is for each one of us to invest our own ideal library for our classics; and I would say that one half of it should consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us, and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us. We should also leave a section of empty spaces for surprises and chance discoveries.
Calvino writes with grace in both his fictions and his essays. He is a fantastic writer in the fact I believe he is quite multifaceted, and by that I also mean that my own view of him is multifaceted. My lecturer referred to him once as being ‘icy’ – a term I have adopted as my own in reference to him. In fact, the full quote, as I have quoted before in my The Baron in the Trees review: “An icy postmodernist”, whom one “admires more than enjoys”. In some cases, I would agree. I am in awe of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, but my enjoyment when reading it is another matter entirely. Any iciness, postmodernist-ness, is void here – what is left is Calvino at his intelligent and most graceful self.
The first essay is the title essay, and Calvino attempts to define a ‘classic’ novel, which ironically, his own novels fall into, in my opinion. He proposes 14 definitions, headings, and then further expansion into several; my favourite headings are:
5. A classic is a book which even when we read it for the first time gives the sense of rereading something we have read before.
6. A classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers.
9. Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.
After the title essay, in a further 35 essays, Calvino journeys through many essays on a number of writers and novels. He covers Conrad, Hemingway, Borges, Stevenson, James, Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Homer, Dafoe and more. Though I would only recommend these essays to readers particularly interested in the writers, Calvino’s thoughts on them and their style and influence, or simply in the grace and ease of his essay writing in general. Even essays concerning writers I was not aware of, or else uninterested in, I found great enjoyment through Calvino’s prose. The essays are dated between the 60s and the 80s. Of course, the most interesting essays for me were about writers I care for and read: Hemingway, Borges, Twain, Conrad, etc. The essays that surprised me the most were on Gadda and Pliny.
I considered adding quotes and thoughts on Calvino’s thoughts on other writers, but for one, I’d spoil it, and for another, it would end up being too like a Borges story, wouldn’t it? My thoughts, on Calvino’s thoughts, on someone else. Or even, sometimes, my thoughts, on Calvino’s thoughts, on another writer’s thoughts, on a final writer. We don’t have time.
August 18, 2021
At their best these essays make you long to rush out and read those writers that Calvino is dealing with and considers to be his personal "classics" (e.g. those on Nezami*, Voltaire, Diderot, Stendhal*, Balzac, Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Twain, Conrad, Pasternak*, Hemingway* and Queneau*...quite the majority of them, in fact. But as this this a collection assembled after the author's death, and anyhow like any selection of occasional essays from across four decades of a career, there are also included here those essays which are a bit of a chore to read, which require you to have already read the writers, or read them recently in order to really "get" the pieces (e.g. those on Ovid, Ariosto, James, Gadda, Montale, Ponge, and (alas!) Borges. A very good innings, then, all in all, and now I long to also revisit the maestro's own fiction, which I haven't done for some years....
*note: the starred essays were particularly moving, and/or seminal—reflecting, no doubt, Calvino's affinity for, and sympathy with, his subjects, as much as his remarkable erudition, which is evident always & everywhere throughout, albeit with great modesty and elegance....
*note: the starred essays were particularly moving, and/or seminal—reflecting, no doubt, Calvino's affinity for, and sympathy with, his subjects, as much as his remarkable erudition, which is evident always & everywhere throughout, albeit with great modesty and elegance....
March 27, 2022
Calvino lists off a lot of the writers he considers classics:
Homer, Tolstoy, Ovid, Pasternak, Bergerac.
Made me want to read Pliny.
Pavese, Xenophon, Dickens, Balzac, Gadda, Hemingway, Borges.
Covers ancients and moderns. Points out common threads between them, and how each approaches their art seriously, but in unique ways, conveying a particular aesthetic and conception of the world. I tend to agree that a classic should be reread, that we all need to define our own set of classics, that a library should be composed both of books we have read and intend to reread and about half of which books we have yet to read. When we read classics for the second time in fact, in some cases we are reading them for the first time.
Calvino's clear arguments are compelling and interesting, whether you have read works by the author he is discussing or not. It is not a perfect prescriptive list of authors for you to read, but it will allow you to consider new angles to authors you have undoubtedly heard a lot about.
He even includes one obscure Eastern work (not readily available in English) amid the above-mentioned and the go-to Italian works, like Orlando Furioso.
Traditionally, Eastern authors are ignored in compendiums like this one, and I often wish great Western authors read more Chinese, Japanese, Indian and other non-European classics. Hence why I avoid a lot of Harold Bloom's books. But there is much to be gained from analyzing the Western archetypes, defining and redefining the heroes. Is every story either an Odyssey or an Iliad? I doubt it. But the generalizations critics make are not useless. You don't have to agree with them to appreciate their viewpoints.
I was not impressed with the Stendhal I've read, but Calvino convinced me to give his works another shot. I already knew Flaubert was brilliant, but the inter-textual anecdotes Calvino provided were valuable.
Still, I would not consider Calvino an authority on these matters, especially since he read most of the foreign works in Italian translation. Leopardi and Borges seem to have a bit closer understanding of the non-canonical works. And he is astute enough to encourage the reader to not read outside sources, that the primary texts are all you need. It is almost an invitation to drop the book you are reading and go read the classics themselves instead. That is the best advice in the book.
Homer, Tolstoy, Ovid, Pasternak, Bergerac.
Made me want to read Pliny.
Pavese, Xenophon, Dickens, Balzac, Gadda, Hemingway, Borges.
Covers ancients and moderns. Points out common threads between them, and how each approaches their art seriously, but in unique ways, conveying a particular aesthetic and conception of the world. I tend to agree that a classic should be reread, that we all need to define our own set of classics, that a library should be composed both of books we have read and intend to reread and about half of which books we have yet to read. When we read classics for the second time in fact, in some cases we are reading them for the first time.
Calvino's clear arguments are compelling and interesting, whether you have read works by the author he is discussing or not. It is not a perfect prescriptive list of authors for you to read, but it will allow you to consider new angles to authors you have undoubtedly heard a lot about.
He even includes one obscure Eastern work (not readily available in English) amid the above-mentioned and the go-to Italian works, like Orlando Furioso.
Traditionally, Eastern authors are ignored in compendiums like this one, and I often wish great Western authors read more Chinese, Japanese, Indian and other non-European classics. Hence why I avoid a lot of Harold Bloom's books. But there is much to be gained from analyzing the Western archetypes, defining and redefining the heroes. Is every story either an Odyssey or an Iliad? I doubt it. But the generalizations critics make are not useless. You don't have to agree with them to appreciate their viewpoints.
I was not impressed with the Stendhal I've read, but Calvino convinced me to give his works another shot. I already knew Flaubert was brilliant, but the inter-textual anecdotes Calvino provided were valuable.
Still, I would not consider Calvino an authority on these matters, especially since he read most of the foreign works in Italian translation. Leopardi and Borges seem to have a bit closer understanding of the non-canonical works. And he is astute enough to encourage the reader to not read outside sources, that the primary texts are all you need. It is almost an invitation to drop the book you are reading and go read the classics themselves instead. That is the best advice in the book.
January 3, 2021
Just found my old copy of this at my parent’s house this Xmas eve. Flicking through I am reminded why I recalled it so fondly. Excellent pieces on Tirant lo Blanc (which i still need to read!), Diderot, Gadda, Montale, Queneau, Dickens and many more. Recommended to any and all book lovers.
October 15, 2021
Per me Perché leggere i classici di Italo Calvino è un libro a metà.
⠀
Da un lato c’è il testo che dà il titolo al libro e che ho amato alla follia.
Dall’altro ci sono tutta una serie di articoli su vari autori e testi che non sono riuscita ad apprezzare più di tanto (a parte qualche eccezione).
⠀
Da un lato c’è Calvino che ha una scrittura che ti trascina, dove ogni parola sa di passione e amore. E la sua conoscenza, mamma mia, cosa non è il suo sapere!
Dall’altro ci sono io, che a parlare così di libri manco nelle prossime duecento vite.
⠀
E a questo punto a chi vuoi dare la colpa? Alla conoscenza di Calvino? O alla mia ignoranza? Eh.
Quindi sì, diciamo che è uno di quei libri a cui posso dire: “Sono io, non sei tu”.
⠀
Ci sono autori e/o titoli che non conoscevo, o che magari conosco di nome, per fama, importanza, ma che non ho mai letto e affrontato e questo penso abbia influito sulla mia capacità di apprezzare la raccolta di saggi scritti dall’autore.
⠀
Penso che il saggio iniziale possa raggiungere un numero più vasto di lettori, di sicuro rimane ancora attuale, e forse lo rimarrà sempre.
I rimanenti articoli forse sono più apprezzabili da un gruppo più ristretto di lettori, ma prendete questa frase con le pinze e soprattutto non vedeteci un senso diverso da quello che intendo (perché no, non sto dicendo che esistono lettori di serie A e lettori di serie B).
⠀
A prescindere, io un uomo come Italo Calvino lo avrei voluto incontrare, conoscere, parlarci assieme, anzi no, avrei fatto parlare solo lui, io sarei rimasta - commossa - in un angolo della stanza ad ascoltarlo per ore.
⠀
[…] non si leggono i classici per dovere o rispetto, ma solo per amore.
⠀
Da un lato c’è il testo che dà il titolo al libro e che ho amato alla follia.
Dall’altro ci sono tutta una serie di articoli su vari autori e testi che non sono riuscita ad apprezzare più di tanto (a parte qualche eccezione).
⠀
Da un lato c’è Calvino che ha una scrittura che ti trascina, dove ogni parola sa di passione e amore. E la sua conoscenza, mamma mia, cosa non è il suo sapere!
Dall’altro ci sono io, che a parlare così di libri manco nelle prossime duecento vite.
⠀
E a questo punto a chi vuoi dare la colpa? Alla conoscenza di Calvino? O alla mia ignoranza? Eh.
Quindi sì, diciamo che è uno di quei libri a cui posso dire: “Sono io, non sei tu”.
⠀
Ci sono autori e/o titoli che non conoscevo, o che magari conosco di nome, per fama, importanza, ma che non ho mai letto e affrontato e questo penso abbia influito sulla mia capacità di apprezzare la raccolta di saggi scritti dall’autore.
⠀
Penso che il saggio iniziale possa raggiungere un numero più vasto di lettori, di sicuro rimane ancora attuale, e forse lo rimarrà sempre.
I rimanenti articoli forse sono più apprezzabili da un gruppo più ristretto di lettori, ma prendete questa frase con le pinze e soprattutto non vedeteci un senso diverso da quello che intendo (perché no, non sto dicendo che esistono lettori di serie A e lettori di serie B).
⠀
A prescindere, io un uomo come Italo Calvino lo avrei voluto incontrare, conoscere, parlarci assieme, anzi no, avrei fatto parlare solo lui, io sarei rimasta - commossa - in un angolo della stanza ad ascoltarlo per ore.
⠀
[…] non si leggono i classici per dovere o rispetto, ma solo per amore.
September 1, 2020
I was prescribed this book for an MA I am about to start this September, though this was actually very convient for me as I have been meaning to read this for a while.
Essentially, this collection of essays are calvino espousing what he loves about some of his favourite authors and works of fiction. It's organised in a general chronological order of when an author was active (Homer before Hemingway).
The real joy that comes from reading this collection is the the unbridled enthusiasm Calvino has for the works he is reviewing. In one essay he goes back to a poet he had been taught in school and compares the poet's works to the misremembered lines that calvino has had floating in his brain since adolescence and endeavours to understand *why* exactly his brain changed the phrasing or the metre.
This collection has really opened me up to authors I never had a interest in reading, or even knew existed. So far I've bought a copy of Pliny the Elder's Natural History and have decided to try and get my hands on some of the works of Balzac, Ariosto, Montale, Francis Ponge, and Jorge Luis Borges.
One shortcoming is that the collection is entirely filled with male authors (unless I seriously missed something), however I'd most likely put that down to history being unkind to female writers, also this collection was not organised by him as its publication was posthumous.
Essentially, this collection of essays are calvino espousing what he loves about some of his favourite authors and works of fiction. It's organised in a general chronological order of when an author was active (Homer before Hemingway).
The real joy that comes from reading this collection is the the unbridled enthusiasm Calvino has for the works he is reviewing. In one essay he goes back to a poet he had been taught in school and compares the poet's works to the misremembered lines that calvino has had floating in his brain since adolescence and endeavours to understand *why* exactly his brain changed the phrasing or the metre.
This collection has really opened me up to authors I never had a interest in reading, or even knew existed. So far I've bought a copy of Pliny the Elder's Natural History and have decided to try and get my hands on some of the works of Balzac, Ariosto, Montale, Francis Ponge, and Jorge Luis Borges.
One shortcoming is that the collection is entirely filled with male authors (unless I seriously missed something), however I'd most likely put that down to history being unkind to female writers, also this collection was not organised by him as its publication was posthumous.
September 1, 2023
Italo Calvino şüphesiz çağımızın en yetkin İtalyan edebiyatçılarının başında gelmektedir. Umberto Eco ile benzerliği çoktur ancak ondan farklı olarak ilgi alanı çok daha geniş tarih-zaman dilimini kapsar. Bu kitabını klasik edebi eserleri 14 farklı tanımlama ile sunduğu bir deneme ile başlatıyor yazar, sonra 36 deneme ile örnekliyor.
Klasikleri okuduğumuz yaşın önemini vurgulayan Calvino olgunluk çağımızda, gençliğimizin en önemli okumalarına yeniden dönmeye ayıracağımız bir zaman olmalıdır tezini savunuyor, ki kesinlikle katılıyorum. Benzer bir düşüncesi de bir klasik, onu okuyanla kişisel bir ilişki kurduğunda klasik olur, yani kıvılcım çakmazsa, yapacak bir şey yoktur şeklindedir. Bu görüşlerinden yola çıkarak klasikler ile bilinçli bir güncel yayın okuma dozu arasında denge kurabilen kişinin en verimli okuma yapan kişi olduğunu ileri sürer.
Calvino’nun verdiği örnekler arasında Homeros / Odysseia , Ovidius / Dönüşümler, Plinius / DoğaTarihi , Nizami / Yedi Prenses, Boris Pasternak / Doktor Jivago, Ariosto / Orlando Furioso ile ilgili denemeleri çok beğendim. Ayrıca Ksenophon / Anabasis, Daniel Defoe / Robinson Crusoe, Voltaire / Candide, Diderot / Kaderci Jacques ve Efendisi, Charles Dickens / Ortak Dostumuz, Gustave Flaubert / Üç Öykü, Stendhal / Parna Manastırı , Lev Tolstoy / İki Süvari Subayı, Mark Twain / Hadleyburg'u Yoldan Çıkaran Adam, Henry James / Daisy Miller, Robert Louis Stevenson / Kumsaldaki Ev ve Cesare Pavese / Ay ve Şenlik Ateşleri de ufuk açıcı denemeler olarak keyifle okunuyor. Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Queneau hakkında genel değerlendirmelerde bulunmuş.
Calvino özetle klasik edebi eserler arasında kendi beğenilerine göre bir seçim yapmış. Bu nedenle bir İlahi Komedya, Don Quijote, Gazap Üzümleri, Umut, Terra Nostra, Austerlitz, Vahşi Hafiyeler, Yaşam Kullanma Kılavuzu vb birçok eseri görememek onların klasik oldukları gerçeğini değiştirmez tabii ki. Bilgilendirici, ufuk açıcı, farklı bakış açıları sunan bir derleme, beğendim, öneririm.
Klasikleri okuduğumuz yaşın önemini vurgulayan Calvino olgunluk çağımızda, gençliğimizin en önemli okumalarına yeniden dönmeye ayıracağımız bir zaman olmalıdır tezini savunuyor, ki kesinlikle katılıyorum. Benzer bir düşüncesi de bir klasik, onu okuyanla kişisel bir ilişki kurduğunda klasik olur, yani kıvılcım çakmazsa, yapacak bir şey yoktur şeklindedir. Bu görüşlerinden yola çıkarak klasikler ile bilinçli bir güncel yayın okuma dozu arasında denge kurabilen kişinin en verimli okuma yapan kişi olduğunu ileri sürer.
Calvino’nun verdiği örnekler arasında Homeros / Odysseia , Ovidius / Dönüşümler, Plinius / DoğaTarihi , Nizami / Yedi Prenses, Boris Pasternak / Doktor Jivago, Ariosto / Orlando Furioso ile ilgili denemeleri çok beğendim. Ayrıca Ksenophon / Anabasis, Daniel Defoe / Robinson Crusoe, Voltaire / Candide, Diderot / Kaderci Jacques ve Efendisi, Charles Dickens / Ortak Dostumuz, Gustave Flaubert / Üç Öykü, Stendhal / Parna Manastırı , Lev Tolstoy / İki Süvari Subayı, Mark Twain / Hadleyburg'u Yoldan Çıkaran Adam, Henry James / Daisy Miller, Robert Louis Stevenson / Kumsaldaki Ev ve Cesare Pavese / Ay ve Şenlik Ateşleri de ufuk açıcı denemeler olarak keyifle okunuyor. Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Queneau hakkında genel değerlendirmelerde bulunmuş.
Calvino özetle klasik edebi eserler arasında kendi beğenilerine göre bir seçim yapmış. Bu nedenle bir İlahi Komedya, Don Quijote, Gazap Üzümleri, Umut, Terra Nostra, Austerlitz, Vahşi Hafiyeler, Yaşam Kullanma Kılavuzu vb birçok eseri görememek onların klasik oldukları gerçeğini değiştirmez tabii ki. Bilgilendirici, ufuk açıcı, farklı bakış açıları sunan bir derleme, beğendim, öneririm.
January 23, 2018
O Italo Calvino que se apreende deste conjunto de textos afigura-se como um agradável senhor com gosto pela leitura. Eu continuo a comprar e a ler livros sobre livros precisamente por faltar no meu quotidiano gente que seja sábia mas bondosa para com a minha ignorância, e disponível q.b. para me dispensar parte de um vasto conhecimento literário.
Mas se essa pessoa dissertar longamente sobre autores dos quais nunca ouvi falar e que nada me interessam, ou sobre as diversas traduções e edições italianas de imensas obras, passarei a estar ocupadíssima a escovar as gatas e a fotografá-las para as exibir nas redes sociais, evitando encontros com esse cultor literário. Ou seja, boa parte destes textos e alguns dos seus segmentos foram-me penosamente inúteis. O que é lamentável, já que, mantenho, o Sr. Calvino desta escrita parece-me um simpático senhor.
Mas o que me irritou e deu vontade de usar o livro para calçar móveis de assento instável foi a tradução. E não estou a falar de traduzir certa expressão como «o unicórnio vomitou, ex-líbris!» em vez de um mais fiel «o unicórnio gregou um arco-íris». Estou a referir-me ao uso de expressões que me causam raiva suficiente para organizar e fornecer uma festa da espuma, como infra melhor explanarei.
Nesta tradução as coisas «têm a ver» e não «que ver». Já me basta a penosidade de lidar com isto no discurso mediático. Se o Calvino escrevesse em português não escreveria assim, aposto.
Outra ainda mais irritante: espaço de tempo. E antes que algum francisco-espertista venha argumentar com o «ah! e tal, que a teoria da relatividade e o raio», aviso desde já que esta peregrina patetice expressiva também é usada num segmento em que se transcreve um TEXTO DO GALILEU!
E as comparações também surgem «a» e não «com» (evento expressivo que ataca gente a Sul do Mondego como carraças aos canídeos em tempos primaveris). Não estando propriamente errada, é uma expressão que proporciona falta de clareza em dose suficiente para que eu a repudie.
Mas se essa pessoa dissertar longamente sobre autores dos quais nunca ouvi falar e que nada me interessam, ou sobre as diversas traduções e edições italianas de imensas obras, passarei a estar ocupadíssima a escovar as gatas e a fotografá-las para as exibir nas redes sociais, evitando encontros com esse cultor literário. Ou seja, boa parte destes textos e alguns dos seus segmentos foram-me penosamente inúteis. O que é lamentável, já que, mantenho, o Sr. Calvino desta escrita parece-me um simpático senhor.
Mas o que me irritou e deu vontade de usar o livro para calçar móveis de assento instável foi a tradução. E não estou a falar de traduzir certa expressão como «o unicórnio vomitou, ex-líbris!» em vez de um mais fiel «o unicórnio gregou um arco-íris». Estou a referir-me ao uso de expressões que me causam raiva suficiente para organizar e fornecer uma festa da espuma, como infra melhor explanarei.
Nesta tradução as coisas «têm a ver» e não «que ver». Já me basta a penosidade de lidar com isto no discurso mediático. Se o Calvino escrevesse em português não escreveria assim, aposto.
Outra ainda mais irritante: espaço de tempo. E antes que algum francisco-espertista venha argumentar com o «ah! e tal, que a teoria da relatividade e o raio», aviso desde já que esta peregrina patetice expressiva também é usada num segmento em que se transcreve um TEXTO DO GALILEU!
E as comparações também surgem «a» e não «com» (evento expressivo que ataca gente a Sul do Mondego como carraças aos canídeos em tempos primaveris). Não estando propriamente errada, é uma expressão que proporciona falta de clareza em dose suficiente para que eu a repudie.
January 10, 2023
Arkasözde yazan çekici paragrafın uyandırdığı beklentinin aksine kitap bilindik eserleri değil, yine tanıdık yazarların tabir-i caizse biraz kıyıda köşede kalmış olanlarını, bir başka deyişle Calvino'nun kendi seçmecelerini içeriyor. Bir eserin hangi şartlar altında klasik statüsünü kazanalabileceğinin birçok tanımı verilen şahane ilk bölüm haricinde, kitabın geri kalanı yazarın anlaşılması aşırı dikkat gerektiren, ağdalı cümleleriyle bu kişisel 'klasik'ler üzerine denemelerinden oluşuyor. Calvino'nun bu şiirsel-soyut üslubu ve klasik olarak karar kıldığı bu eserlerdeki sürekli İtalya kültürü ve lokasyonları vurgusu gibi etmenler anlatılanı takibi zorlaştırsa da, incelemelerin duygusal ve bilgisel zenginliği hemen farkediliyor.
Ayrıca, -benim yaptığımın tersine- sözkonusu eseri okuduktan hemen sonra Calvino'nun ilgili denemesi sindirerek okunacak olursa bu kitabın daha besleyici ve aydınlatıcı olacağını düşünüyorum.
"Bir klasik, söyleyecekleri asla tükenmeyen bir kitaptır."
"Bir klasik, sürekli olarak kendisi hakkında bir eleştirel söylemler bütününü tahrik eden, ama hep onları silkeleyip üzerinden atan bir yapıttır."
"Klasikler, haklarında duyduklarımızla ne kadar bildiğimize inanıyorsak, gerçekten okuduğumuzda o kadar yeni, beklenmedik, benzersiz bulduğumuz kitaplardır."
Ayrıca, -benim yaptığımın tersine- sözkonusu eseri okuduktan hemen sonra Calvino'nun ilgili denemesi sindirerek okunacak olursa bu kitabın daha besleyici ve aydınlatıcı olacağını düşünüyorum.
"Bir klasik, söyleyecekleri asla tükenmeyen bir kitaptır."
"Bir klasik, sürekli olarak kendisi hakkında bir eleştirel söylemler bütününü tahrik eden, ama hep onları silkeleyip üzerinden atan bir yapıttır."
"Klasikler, haklarında duyduklarımızla ne kadar bildiğimize inanıyorsak, gerçekten okuduğumuzda o kadar yeni, beklenmedik, benzersiz bulduğumuz kitaplardır."
June 19, 2015
Italo Calvino brilliantly review some most known classics, such as:
Odissey by Homer
Anabase by Xenofante
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Robison Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Candide by Voltaire
Jacques le Fataliste by Denis Diderot
La Chartreuse de Parma by Stendhal
Our Mutual Friend by Dickens
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Doctor Jivago by Boris Pasternak
among many other celebrated authors.
Odissey by Homer
Anabase by Xenofante
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Robison Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Candide by Voltaire
Jacques le Fataliste by Denis Diderot
La Chartreuse de Parma by Stendhal
Our Mutual Friend by Dickens
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Doctor Jivago by Boris Pasternak
among many other celebrated authors.
July 15, 2019
Avrei voluto incontrare Calvino solo per abbracciarlo e chiedergli come fa.
September 14, 2021
Italo Calvino reuniu neste livro vários ensaios sobre os nossos estimados clássicos e nele encontrei uma passagem que espelha bem a minha experiência.
O autor diz-nos que na juventude, pelas características da escrita destes livros, experienciamos uma espécie de luta... de impaciência na compreensão da escrita complexa, das descrições, das temáticas… uma ânsia para nos apressarmos e para chegar ao fim, às últimas páginas.
Numa outra fase mais tardia da vida, passamos a ser um pouco mais tolerantes com o tempo, e a experiência levam-nos a detetar aspetos subtis da escrita... há uma tendência a julgarmos “o que faria eu se estivesse na mesma situação” face às nossas aprendizagens pessoais e aos desafios que enfrentamos.
Italo Calvino lembra-nos como os clássicos têm um poder especial: o de permanecerem na nossa mente.
Até nas leituras menos prazerosas, estas formam uma memória mais sólida, e falamos com mais facilidade sobre o que nos fizeram sentir. É como se, por os reconhecermos como clássicos, a relação de leitor-livro é moldada por um respeito à intemporalidade, como se se tratasse de facto de alguém mais sénior, experiente e digno de consideração.
Como é fácil de imaginar, à semelhança do que acontece com a generalidade dos livros; nem todos fazem “faísca” connosco e nos apaixonam.
O que distingue os clássicos é que é impossível ficarmos indiferentes: gostar ou não? É bem mais do que isso: é amor ou ódio ou revolta… eles despertam emoções fortes!
Em incontáveis conversas sobre livros, tanto com escritores como com leitores, não me recordo de uma só ocasião em que foi mencionado um clássico e alguém disse: li, mas não me lembro muito bem do que achei.
O mais comum de se ouvir é: adorei, é o livro da minha vida, ou odiei, ou nem passei das primeiras vinte páginas, adormeci… apeteceu-me queimá-lo. :)
Calvino pede-nos para reservarmos tempo para redescobrir os clássicos lidos na nossa juventude.
Ele também sugere que devemos manter-nos longe dos textos introdutórios que chegam até nós trazendo a aura da interpretação feita por gerações anteriores.
Diz que a descoberta é uma aventura pessoal de cada leitor e por isso as sugestões de terceiros, são coisa a evitar.
Para mim, esta parte é um desafio. Eu adoro ler textos introdutórios que me orientam na leitura! Talvez um dia...
Amem-se ou odeiem-se os clássicos, eles são incontornáveis e é impossível ficar indiferente.
O autor equipara-os aos antigos talismãs.
O autor diz-nos que na juventude, pelas características da escrita destes livros, experienciamos uma espécie de luta... de impaciência na compreensão da escrita complexa, das descrições, das temáticas… uma ânsia para nos apressarmos e para chegar ao fim, às últimas páginas.
Numa outra fase mais tardia da vida, passamos a ser um pouco mais tolerantes com o tempo, e a experiência levam-nos a detetar aspetos subtis da escrita... há uma tendência a julgarmos “o que faria eu se estivesse na mesma situação” face às nossas aprendizagens pessoais e aos desafios que enfrentamos.
Italo Calvino lembra-nos como os clássicos têm um poder especial: o de permanecerem na nossa mente.
Até nas leituras menos prazerosas, estas formam uma memória mais sólida, e falamos com mais facilidade sobre o que nos fizeram sentir. É como se, por os reconhecermos como clássicos, a relação de leitor-livro é moldada por um respeito à intemporalidade, como se se tratasse de facto de alguém mais sénior, experiente e digno de consideração.
Como é fácil de imaginar, à semelhança do que acontece com a generalidade dos livros; nem todos fazem “faísca” connosco e nos apaixonam.
O que distingue os clássicos é que é impossível ficarmos indiferentes: gostar ou não? É bem mais do que isso: é amor ou ódio ou revolta… eles despertam emoções fortes!
Em incontáveis conversas sobre livros, tanto com escritores como com leitores, não me recordo de uma só ocasião em que foi mencionado um clássico e alguém disse: li, mas não me lembro muito bem do que achei.
O mais comum de se ouvir é: adorei, é o livro da minha vida, ou odiei, ou nem passei das primeiras vinte páginas, adormeci… apeteceu-me queimá-lo. :)
Calvino pede-nos para reservarmos tempo para redescobrir os clássicos lidos na nossa juventude.
Ele também sugere que devemos manter-nos longe dos textos introdutórios que chegam até nós trazendo a aura da interpretação feita por gerações anteriores.
Diz que a descoberta é uma aventura pessoal de cada leitor e por isso as sugestões de terceiros, são coisa a evitar.
Para mim, esta parte é um desafio. Eu adoro ler textos introdutórios que me orientam na leitura! Talvez um dia...
Amem-se ou odeiem-se os clássicos, eles são incontornáveis e é impossível ficar indiferente.
O autor equipara-os aos antigos talismãs.
January 8, 2016
کتاب مجموعه ای از مقالات جدا هستش از کالوینو که درباره ی هر کدوم از نویسنده های کلاسیک نوشته. مقالاتشم تو فاصله های زمانی مختلف و جاهای مختلف نوشته و چاپ شده و کتاب درواقع فقط جمع آوری و مرتبشون کرده.
کتابی نیست که آدم یک جا بخونه! من خودم فقط مقالات مربوط به نویسنده های خاصیش رو خوندم و چون از سبک و سیاق کار باقی نوسیده های داخل کتاب اطلاعی ندارم احتمال میدم به مرور زمان و در طول سالها کتابو کامل خواهم خوند.
کتابی نیست که آدم یک جا بخونه! من خودم فقط مقالات مربوط به نویسنده های خاصیش رو خوندم و چون از سبک و سیاق کار باقی نوسیده های داخل کتاب اطلاعی ندارم احتمال میدم به مرور زمان و در طول سالها کتابو کامل خواهم خوند.
October 13, 2017
Questa é una raccolta di saggi scritti da Calvino, in tempi diversi, sul tema dei classici.
Il saggio iniziale, omonimo alla raccolta, é breve e di straordinaria attualitá. Consigliabile a un pubblico vastissimo di lettori.
Il resto della raccolta propone riflessioni e chiavi di lettura per alcuni dei titoli piú ostici della letteratura e sono consigliabili a un pubblico ben piú ristretto di lettori che vogliano avere Calvino sulla spalla mentre affrontano i fantasmi della letteratura "classica".
La prosa di Calvino é piacevole in ogni caso.
Il saggio iniziale, omonimo alla raccolta, é breve e di straordinaria attualitá. Consigliabile a un pubblico vastissimo di lettori.
Il resto della raccolta propone riflessioni e chiavi di lettura per alcuni dei titoli piú ostici della letteratura e sono consigliabili a un pubblico ben piú ristretto di lettori che vogliano avere Calvino sulla spalla mentre affrontano i fantasmi della letteratura "classica".
La prosa di Calvino é piacevole in ogni caso.
June 14, 2022
3 stars
اثری در باب کلاسیک ها، کلاسیک نه از حیث یکی از انواع سبک ادبی بلکه از این جهت که این آثار کلاسیک، آثاری هستند برجسته، همه گیر و فاخر که فراتر از زمان و مکان خود بر تارک قله ادبیات جهان می درخشند و به واسطه مفهومی که منتقل می کنند، جهانی و شمولیت تام و تمام برای بشریت دارد
ایتالو کالوینو در این کتاب به نقد و بررسی تخصصی ۳۱ اثر برجسته تاریخ ادبیات ( از نظر خودش) می پردازد و خواننده را با متدلوژی نقد ادبی و نحوه نگاه ادبی به آثار ادبی آشنا می کند
کتاب دارای نثری سخت از حیث ترجمه است و نیاز با ترجمه مجدد از سوی متخصصین دارد
اثری در باب کلاسیک ها، کلاسیک نه از حیث یکی از انواع سبک ادبی بلکه از این جهت که این آثار کلاسیک، آثاری هستند برجسته، همه گیر و فاخر که فراتر از زمان و مکان خود بر تارک قله ادبیات جهان می درخشند و به واسطه مفهومی که منتقل می کنند، جهانی و شمولیت تام و تمام برای بشریت دارد
ایتالو کالوینو در این کتاب به نقد و بررسی تخصصی ۳۱ اثر برجسته تاریخ ادبیات ( از نظر خودش) می پردازد و خواننده را با متدلوژی نقد ادبی و نحوه نگاه ادبی به آثار ادبی آشنا می کند
کتاب دارای نثری سخت از حیث ترجمه است و نیاز با ترجمه مجدد از سوی متخصصین دارد
February 13, 2018
Calvino is not only a brilliant author but also an enigmatic bookworm. He weaves his multi-layered logic with the specific authors and books he’s referencing (one author per essay; 36 essays). If one have read the author/book he’s referencing, it’ll add deeper insights/logic of thought. If not read yet, one’ll be encouraged to read that author/book ASAP.
Highlights:
Ovid and Universal Contiguity
Candide, or Concerning Narrative Rapidity
The City as Novel in Balzac
Jorge Luis Borges
The Philosophy of Raymond Queneau
Notes:
P83: The Book of Nature in Galileo
Philosophy is written in this enormous book which is continuously open before our eyes (I mean the universe), but it cannot be understood unless one first understands the language and recognises the characters with which it is written. It is written in a mathematical language, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures. Without knowledge of his medium it is impossible to understand a single word of it; without this knowledge it is like wandering hopelessly through a dark labyrinth. (Il Saggiatore - Galileo)
P124: Knowledge as Dust-cloud in Stendhal
Stendhal claims, ‘there is no originality in truth except in the details’.
P197: The World is an Artichoke
The world’s reality presents itself to our eyes as multiple, prickly, and as densely superimposed layers. Like an artichoke. What counts for us in a work of literature is the possibility of being able to continue to unpeel it like a never-ending artichoke, discovering more and more new dimensions in reading.
P223: Francis Ponge
Re: read FP’s The Voices of Things
Instructions for use are: a few pages every evening will provide a reading which is at one with Ponge’s method of sending out words like tentacles over the porous and variegated substance of the world.
P240: Jorge Luis Borges
The osmosis between what happens in literature and in real life: the ideal source is not some mythical event that took place before the verbal expression, but a text which is a tissue of words and images and meanings, a harmonisation of motifs which find echoes in each other, a musical space in which a theme develops its own variations.
P241: The power of the written word is, then linked to lived experience both as the source and the end of that experience. As a source, because it becomes equivalent of an event which otherwise would not have taken place, as it were; as an end, because for Borges the written word that counts is the one that makes a strong impact on the collective imagination, as an emblematic or conceptual figure, made to be remembered and recognised whenever it appears, whether in the past or in the future.
..maximum concentration of meanings in the brevity of his texts.
Re: Borges ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’.
The hypothesis about time are put forward in TGOFP are each contained (and almost hidden) in just a few lines. First there is an idea of constant time, a kind of subjective, absolute present (‘I reflected that everything happens to a man in this very moment of now. Centuries and centuries, but events happen only in the present; countless men in the air, on land and sea, and everything that really happens, happens to me..’). Then an idea of time determined by will, the time of an action decided on once and for all, in which the future would present itself as irrevocable as the past. Lastly, the story’s central idea: a multiple, ramified time in which every present instant splits into two futures, so as to form ‘an expanding, dizzying web of divergent, convergent and parallel times’. This idea of an infinity of contemporary universes, in which all possibilities are realized in all possible combinations, is not a digression from the story, but the very condition which is required so that the..
Highlights:
Ovid and Universal Contiguity
Candide, or Concerning Narrative Rapidity
The City as Novel in Balzac
Jorge Luis Borges
The Philosophy of Raymond Queneau
Notes:
P83: The Book of Nature in Galileo
Philosophy is written in this enormous book which is continuously open before our eyes (I mean the universe), but it cannot be understood unless one first understands the language and recognises the characters with which it is written. It is written in a mathematical language, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures. Without knowledge of his medium it is impossible to understand a single word of it; without this knowledge it is like wandering hopelessly through a dark labyrinth. (Il Saggiatore - Galileo)
P124: Knowledge as Dust-cloud in Stendhal
Stendhal claims, ‘there is no originality in truth except in the details’.
P197: The World is an Artichoke
The world’s reality presents itself to our eyes as multiple, prickly, and as densely superimposed layers. Like an artichoke. What counts for us in a work of literature is the possibility of being able to continue to unpeel it like a never-ending artichoke, discovering more and more new dimensions in reading.
P223: Francis Ponge
Re: read FP’s The Voices of Things
Instructions for use are: a few pages every evening will provide a reading which is at one with Ponge’s method of sending out words like tentacles over the porous and variegated substance of the world.
P240: Jorge Luis Borges
The osmosis between what happens in literature and in real life: the ideal source is not some mythical event that took place before the verbal expression, but a text which is a tissue of words and images and meanings, a harmonisation of motifs which find echoes in each other, a musical space in which a theme develops its own variations.
P241: The power of the written word is, then linked to lived experience both as the source and the end of that experience. As a source, because it becomes equivalent of an event which otherwise would not have taken place, as it were; as an end, because for Borges the written word that counts is the one that makes a strong impact on the collective imagination, as an emblematic or conceptual figure, made to be remembered and recognised whenever it appears, whether in the past or in the future.
..maximum concentration of meanings in the brevity of his texts.
Re: Borges ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’.
The hypothesis about time are put forward in TGOFP are each contained (and almost hidden) in just a few lines. First there is an idea of constant time, a kind of subjective, absolute present (‘I reflected that everything happens to a man in this very moment of now. Centuries and centuries, but events happen only in the present; countless men in the air, on land and sea, and everything that really happens, happens to me..’). Then an idea of time determined by will, the time of an action decided on once and for all, in which the future would present itself as irrevocable as the past. Lastly, the story’s central idea: a multiple, ramified time in which every present instant splits into two futures, so as to form ‘an expanding, dizzying web of divergent, convergent and parallel times’. This idea of an infinity of contemporary universes, in which all possibilities are realized in all possible combinations, is not a digression from the story, but the very condition which is required so that the..
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December 29, 2015Calvino is somewhat less charming as a literary critic than as a novelist. The introductory essay, "Why Read the Classics?," is an old favorite of mine, and I was glad to revisit it. But from there on out, I was mostly left cold. Granted, I hadn't read most of the books he was discussing-- Ovid, Xenophon, Pavese, Gadda, Montale, certain works by Flaubert-- so I was bound to be a bit less engaged than someone who had read the books in question. But even when I had read them (Stendhal, Homer) I wasn't terribly impressed. A notable exception: his essay on Hemingway is excellent, largely because it's one of the few writings on the man that manages to transcend both worship of and vicious hatred of Ernest H. Calvino is still probably my favorite writer ever-- if anyone is reading this, there's next to nothing of his stuff on my GoodReads profile because I devoured most of it in high school and college-- but this is easily the weakest of his works that I've encountered.
March 3, 2020
" آههه که چه رنج ومشقتی کشیدم تا تمومش کنم اونم با این ترجمه سخت وبد فهم ،اونم با کلمات وجملات بشدت ناگیرا
اینجوری بگم کلاسیک نوشته شده ولی بد ترجمه شده
بنظرم باید با نویسنده های این کتاب کمی تا حدی آشنایی داشته باشی وگرنه جاهایی هست که بشدت آدمو به دردسر میندازه
من خودم خیلی توی گوگل زدم تا از بیشتر مطالب سر دربیارم
کلا کتاب پر دردسریه شاید بخاطر ترجمه ش شاید بخاطر ذهن ناکارآمد من
اونایی که من ازشون راحت لذت بردم:
"گزنفون_آسمان انسان فیل_هفت پیکر نظامی_رابینسون کروزوئه_چارلز دیکنز_دوقزاق لئون تولستوی_حقارت آدمی نزد آنتوان چخوف_همینگوی وما"
اوناییکه یه کمی ابهامات داشتن با کمی لذت
"کتاب بزرگ طبیعت_سیرانو _دنی دیدرو_سه قصه گوستاو فلوبر_فرانسیس پونژ_خورخه لوریس بورخس_افسانه ریمون کنو_مارک تواین_پیر و ژان_
اونایی که بشدت ابهام دارن:
یوجینیو منتاله _رابرت لوئیس استیونسن_جیاماریا اورتس_و و و و و و خیلی های دیگه
اینجوری بگم کلاسیک نوشته شده ولی بد ترجمه شده
بنظرم باید با نویسنده های این کتاب کمی تا حدی آشنایی داشته باشی وگرنه جاهایی هست که بشدت آدمو به دردسر میندازه
من خودم خیلی توی گوگل زدم تا از بیشتر مطالب سر دربیارم
کلا کتاب پر دردسریه شاید بخاطر ترجمه ش شاید بخاطر ذهن ناکارآمد من
اونایی که من ازشون راحت لذت بردم:
"گزنفون_آسمان انسان فیل_هفت پیکر نظامی_رابینسون کروزوئه_چارلز دیکنز_دوقزاق لئون تولستوی_حقارت آدمی نزد آنتوان چخوف_همینگوی وما"
اوناییکه یه کمی ابهامات داشتن با کمی لذت
"کتاب بزرگ طبیعت_سیرانو _دنی دیدرو_سه قصه گوستاو فلوبر_فرانسیس پونژ_خورخه لوریس بورخس_افسانه ریمون کنو_مارک تواین_پیر و ژان_
اونایی که بشدت ابهام دارن:
یوجینیو منتاله _رابرت لوئیس استیونسن_جیاماریا اورتس_و و و و و و خیلی های دیگه
December 25, 2023
Calvino anlatımından çok hoşlandığım bir yazar. Sevdiğim yazarların denemeleriniyse daha da çok severim genelde. Yazarların sevdiği yazarlar okuma rehberi niteliğinde bana kalırsa. Bu kitapta da çok iyi ile fena olmayacak yazılar bir arada. Kitap bir bütün olarak tasarlanmıyor. Öldükten sonra kalan yazılarından yapılan bir derleme.
Kitaba da ismini veren giriş yazısını çok sevdim. Yapılan tüm alıntılar da bu bölümden oluyor. Calvino klasiklerin günümüzde taşıdığı anlamı düşündürmeye çalışıyor. Bizim de çok sık kapıldığımız düşünceler var yazıda. Klasiklerin belli bir yaşa kadar okunmuş olmasını bekliyoruz. Okunmamış klasiği söylemekten de utanıyoruz. Calvino bunun olabilecek en saçma yaklaşım olduğunu söylüyor. Klasiklerin her yaşta başka anlamlar taşıdığını, okuyup bir kenara atmamamız gerektiğini vurguluyor. Klasikler asla tüketilmeyecek kitaplardır. Hatta klasikler hakkında yapılan eleştirileri, yorumları önemsiz hale getiren kitaplardır. Kendi yorumunu bulmak için okura klasiklerden kopmamasını öğütlüyor.
Bu harika yazıdan sonra Calvino’nun seçtiği yazarlara, kitaplara odaklanan yazılar var. Homeros, Anabasis ve Dönüşümler üzerine yazılarını çok sevdim. Üçü de çok sevdiğim kitaplar olduğu için mi bilmiyorum ama yakın zamanda tekrar okuma isteği duydum. Antik klasiklere yeterince zaman ayırmadığımı düşündüm yazılar sayesinde.
Kitaptaki yazıların hepsinin iyi olmadığını söylemem gerek. Bazen zorlu bir dil kullanıyor. Bazen bahsettiği kitap yeterince ilgimi çekmiyor. Yine de okumaktan çok hoşnutum. Yenileyici bir okuma oldu benim için.
Kitaba da ismini veren giriş yazısını çok sevdim. Yapılan tüm alıntılar da bu bölümden oluyor. Calvino klasiklerin günümüzde taşıdığı anlamı düşündürmeye çalışıyor. Bizim de çok sık kapıldığımız düşünceler var yazıda. Klasiklerin belli bir yaşa kadar okunmuş olmasını bekliyoruz. Okunmamış klasiği söylemekten de utanıyoruz. Calvino bunun olabilecek en saçma yaklaşım olduğunu söylüyor. Klasiklerin her yaşta başka anlamlar taşıdığını, okuyup bir kenara atmamamız gerektiğini vurguluyor. Klasikler asla tüketilmeyecek kitaplardır. Hatta klasikler hakkında yapılan eleştirileri, yorumları önemsiz hale getiren kitaplardır. Kendi yorumunu bulmak için okura klasiklerden kopmamasını öğütlüyor.
Bu harika yazıdan sonra Calvino’nun seçtiği yazarlara, kitaplara odaklanan yazılar var. Homeros, Anabasis ve Dönüşümler üzerine yazılarını çok sevdim. Üçü de çok sevdiğim kitaplar olduğu için mi bilmiyorum ama yakın zamanda tekrar okuma isteği duydum. Antik klasiklere yeterince zaman ayırmadığımı düşündüm yazılar sayesinde.
Kitaptaki yazıların hepsinin iyi olmadığını söylemem gerek. Bazen zorlu bir dil kullanıyor. Bazen bahsettiği kitap yeterince ilgimi çekmiyor. Yine de okumaktan çok hoşnutum. Yenileyici bir okuma oldu benim için.
October 12, 2020
Adoro ler livros sobre escritores e as suas obras, mas esta leitura foi um tormento. Acho, não tenho a certeza, que engalinho com Calvino por ele ser tão erudito que fede a presunção. Reconheço que tem muito conhecimento, mas a forma como o transmite não me serve de nada, assim como os poemas em italiano que ocupam algumas páginas desta edição.
March 23, 2021
A great collection of thought provoking musings on the literature admired by Calvino. Most of it "global" classics but some not so well known outside of Italy. As with such musings, they show how Calvino views literature and what he values. A great read to pick out and read one by one at an easy pace.
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