![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Bloody Thick "Lightness"
Jan. 30th, 2008 06:26 pmOkay, I have a bunch of fellow literary geeks on my FL, right? So tell me, please, what the hell does this mean?
...for Italo Calvino, Lightness is the flexible; the weightless; the mobile; the connective; vectors as distinct from structures. Italo Calvino explored Lightness in the first of his Six Memos For The Next Millennium. He saw Lightness as an important aspect of post-modern society and existence that should be celebrated; he, like Heraclitus, never viewed Lightness as negative, indeed he never ascribed any evaluative content to it.
(^from wikipedia)
Near as I can tell, the guy was obsessed with flying imagery in literature. That's nice. A)Isn't that a bit, idunno, obvious? And B)If there's more to his "lightness" theory, shouldn't he do more than give really bad examples and other examples of random things flying?
He also went into how melancholy and humor were light at some point. And specific details, and small things like atoms, though that only makes sense on a very surface level.
And then he went back to flying things.
And now I have to write a paragraph on two pieces of literature, one "heavy" and one "light." Gee, if only if only this made sense. -_-;;
Seriously though. If anyone happens to understand what the hell this guy is talking about (beyond, "Ooooh, look, it flies or is literally light in the non-heavy sense--yay 'lightness'!"), I would be delighted to hear it and would be very, very, very thankful. Because I don't like BS'ing English/writing assignemtns, and I'm stuck with this guy's essays for the next semester, and it would be really rather helpful.
EDIT: Ok, apparently my roommate gets it. Except she can't explain it, and I disagree with what she does try to explain from my reading of it. Maybe this guy's mind works on some weird level that I just can't grasp? Even the roommie admits he seems to be explaining something without really trying, though...
And from what I am starting to grasp, I still think it's utter bullshit. *Mutters about pretentious things in the writing community*
EDIT 2: Oh, I can BS with the best of them, yes I can... For anyone who's interested: ( Why 'His Dark Materials' is 'light' and 'Pride and Prejudice' is 'heavy' )
...for Italo Calvino, Lightness is the flexible; the weightless; the mobile; the connective; vectors as distinct from structures. Italo Calvino explored Lightness in the first of his Six Memos For The Next Millennium. He saw Lightness as an important aspect of post-modern society and existence that should be celebrated; he, like Heraclitus, never viewed Lightness as negative, indeed he never ascribed any evaluative content to it.
(^from wikipedia)
Near as I can tell, the guy was obsessed with flying imagery in literature. That's nice. A)Isn't that a bit, idunno, obvious? And B)If there's more to his "lightness" theory, shouldn't he do more than give really bad examples and other examples of random things flying?
He also went into how melancholy and humor were light at some point. And specific details, and small things like atoms, though that only makes sense on a very surface level.
And then he went back to flying things.
And now I have to write a paragraph on two pieces of literature, one "heavy" and one "light." Gee, if only if only this made sense. -_-;;
Seriously though. If anyone happens to understand what the hell this guy is talking about (beyond, "Ooooh, look, it flies or is literally light in the non-heavy sense--yay 'lightness'!"), I would be delighted to hear it and would be very, very, very thankful. Because I don't like BS'ing English/writing assignemtns, and I'm stuck with this guy's essays for the next semester, and it would be really rather helpful.
EDIT: Ok, apparently my roommate gets it. Except she can't explain it, and I disagree with what she does try to explain from my reading of it. Maybe this guy's mind works on some weird level that I just can't grasp? Even the roommie admits he seems to be explaining something without really trying, though...
And from what I am starting to grasp, I still think it's utter bullshit. *Mutters about pretentious things in the writing community*
EDIT 2: Oh, I can BS with the best of them, yes I can... For anyone who's interested: ( Why 'His Dark Materials' is 'light' and 'Pride and Prejudice' is 'heavy' )
