Thank you, Scott, and thank you also for the link. I just went back and read your old post. I'm not familiar with the Thomson poem, but I found the pairing interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Michael, thank you for the kind words, and I’m glad that you enjoyed the essay. What would be your own recommendation for a next Calvino to try if I wanted to read further?
And of course it’s never too late to try another “In Our Time” episode. As you know, there’s something there for everyone.
I would recommend "The Baron in the Trees", as I think it distinguishes Calvino's writing, in both the premise of the novel, but also how he fashions the plot, which is unlike any other story I've read.
Yes, indeed. Perhaps I'll dip back into the podcast again in future.
Ah Invisible Cities ❤️ One of my all-time favourites. I love love love this passage:
‘Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time.’
It is a lovely passage, I agree. And the book is full of them. I have trouble pulling them all together and seeing how the pieces fit into a whole. You probably have some insights into that! But it is very evocative.
Wonderful essay. I am loyal listener of In Our Time as well. I can’t tell you how many times Bragg has sent me on a new adventure or to rekindle an old story.
Thank you, Richard! If "Invisible Cities" made me feel not so smart, then I'm grateful for readers like you who always make me feel smarter. Isn't Bragg great? A very impressive guy. And over 1000 episodes now of "In Our Time"! That's something.
I think I’ve been listening since 07. I go back to the one I like regularly. I’m not up on Calvino either. I need to go further. He always leads me to gaps in my knowledge. I subscribe to the BBC podcast app. It’s worth it to get the archive of all 1000 episodes l.
You go back with it farther than I do--that's quite a run. I learned of it maybe a half dozen years ago from a colleague who was originally from the UK. I've also used episodes as a resource for online teaching--always nice to find resources that are accessible but still have intellectual heft.
My son recently read If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (an old favorite of mine) and I joined him when he followed it with Invisible Cities, which I hadn't read. He and I both felt that, in contrast with IOAWNAT, we might have bailed on IC if it had gone on too much longer.
Michael, thanks for that confirmation of my hesitation, plus a recommendation. (Lots of -ations.) The podcast discussed "On A Winter's Night" also, and I thought that sounded interesting. As well as a trilogy--the only title I'm remembering right now was "The Baron in the Tree," or something like that. That sounded intriguing.
Enjoyed your comments on "Invisible Cities." I actually wrote about it on my old now defunct blog, where I contrasted it with James Thomson's "City of Dreadful Night": https://swspires.weebly.com/blog/correspondences7059243
Thank you, Scott, and thank you also for the link. I just went back and read your old post. I'm not familiar with the Thomson poem, but I found the pairing interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Lapsed "In Our Time" listener here.
I finally read Calvino over the winter, and started to understand why his novels are so highly respected.
Thank you for writing such a refreshing essay, I really enjoyed reading it.
Michael, thank you for the kind words, and I’m glad that you enjoyed the essay. What would be your own recommendation for a next Calvino to try if I wanted to read further?
And of course it’s never too late to try another “In Our Time” episode. As you know, there’s something there for everyone.
I would recommend "The Baron in the Trees", as I think it distinguishes Calvino's writing, in both the premise of the novel, but also how he fashions the plot, which is unlike any other story I've read.
Yes, indeed. Perhaps I'll dip back into the podcast again in future.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will make a note of that. I have also thought that one sounded interesting.
Ah Invisible Cities ❤️ One of my all-time favourites. I love love love this passage:
‘Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time.’
It is a lovely passage, I agree. And the book is full of them. I have trouble pulling them all together and seeing how the pieces fit into a whole. You probably have some insights into that! But it is very evocative.
Wonderful essay. I am loyal listener of In Our Time as well. I can’t tell you how many times Bragg has sent me on a new adventure or to rekindle an old story.
Thank you, Richard! If "Invisible Cities" made me feel not so smart, then I'm grateful for readers like you who always make me feel smarter. Isn't Bragg great? A very impressive guy. And over 1000 episodes now of "In Our Time"! That's something.
I think I’ve been listening since 07. I go back to the one I like regularly. I’m not up on Calvino either. I need to go further. He always leads me to gaps in my knowledge. I subscribe to the BBC podcast app. It’s worth it to get the archive of all 1000 episodes l.
You go back with it farther than I do--that's quite a run. I learned of it maybe a half dozen years ago from a colleague who was originally from the UK. I've also used episodes as a resource for online teaching--always nice to find resources that are accessible but still have intellectual heft.
My son recently read If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (an old favorite of mine) and I joined him when he followed it with Invisible Cities, which I hadn't read. He and I both felt that, in contrast with IOAWNAT, we might have bailed on IC if it had gone on too much longer.
Michael, thanks for that confirmation of my hesitation, plus a recommendation. (Lots of -ations.) The podcast discussed "On A Winter's Night" also, and I thought that sounded interesting. As well as a trilogy--the only title I'm remembering right now was "The Baron in the Tree," or something like that. That sounded intriguing.
Enjoyed your comments on "Invisible Cities." I actually wrote about it on my old now defunct blog, where I contrasted it with James Thomson's "City of Dreadful Night": https://swspires.weebly.com/blog/correspondences7059243