“ In order to really live you must either live in the most photographic way possible, or else consider photographable every moment in your life. Instead of rejoicing in the spontaneity of the moment, people live in anticipation of nostalgia: Image: BizzaroComics “If a tree falls in a forest and no one puts it on Facebook, does it make a sound?” ( Source.)Īntonino doesn’t see the attraction of photography.
#Italo calvino difficult loves free
“ It is only when they have the photos before their eyes that they seem to take tangible possession of the day spent.”įar and away the best of a good collection: it’s spot on for the Instagram generation, and enjoyably philosophical for thoughtful people of any age, even though it entails the delayed gratification of expensively developing film, rather than limitless free and instant digital pics. The exquisite paradox is the joy of such a secret makes him want to share it with someone, but that would change it. He relishes reliving his memories, “to retain as far as possible the inheritance of that night”. A woman swimming off a crowded beach realises she’s lost her swimsuit: “She stifled the anxiety rising inside her, and tried to think in a calm, orderly fashion.” There’s delicious detail of the sights and sounds of the beach, the intimacy of the water on her skin, and the type of people around, including a young woman judged “full of smugness and egotism” on her appearance.Īs she ponders what to do, Signora Isotta Barbarino confronts the fact that “this body… had indeed been a glory of hers” but was now “a cause for shame” (even when clothed), but that life matters more than pride or shame in one’s body.Īfter a night with a woman, a clerk is struck by the air and colors and sounds all around, “as if he were walking to the sound of music”, liberated from his habitual routine, “as if on the crest of a wave”.
Weak.Ī comic dilemma transfigures into exploration of aging and body image. In the days of #MeToo, this takes on additional import, along with questions about how reliable the soldier’s thoughts are, or whether he’s wanting something to brag about in the barracks.Ī short bedroom farce featuring a married hooker, her husband, a client, and a cop. He struggles to read her signals: when she moves her jacket, is it “to offer him cover or to block his path?” He’s unsure how much he can - or should - take the opportunity to enjoy accidental(?) contact as the train jolts them, “like two sharks grazing each other”. There is sexual tension for a young soldier sitting next to a 30-something wealthy widow in a train carriage. Image: Woman looking in microscope ( Source.)Ĭalvino wrote these in his mid 20s-30s, years before his more famous post-modern novels, including Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler (see my reviews HERE and HERE, respectively). Realistic moments, rather than fantastical, and despite the titles, most are not really love stories, nor adventures.
They reminded me a little of Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine, published 30 years later (see my review HERE). Image: Woman looking in microscope ( Source.) C Difficult Loves is eleven very short stories in which Calvino is like a biologist at a microscope: analysing the sensation of a few minutes or hours in minute detail, revealing the patterns, beauty, and secrets of the mundane.
Difficult Loves is eleven very short stories in which Calvino is like a biologist at a microscope: analysing the sensation of a few minutes or hours in minute detail, revealing the patterns, beauty, and secrets of the mundane.
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