Writer: Italo Calvino.

I want to read more Italo Calvino. I first heard of him from Gore Vidal. In prison I read one of his short stories. So when The Paris Review opened its pay wall to its Italo Calvino interview, I took the time to read it. He remains interesting.

This quote relates to my trying to find my way as a writer in the American Midwest and my trying to encourage those in my situation:

... I came from a nearby region, Liguria, that had almost no literary tradition; there wasn’t a literary center. The writer who has no local literary tradition behind him feels himself a bit of an outsider....

This passage I jumped on as supporting my idea that we can overcome our physical isolation by not isolating our reading:

INTERVIEWER

Do you believe that Europe is overwhelmed by British and American culture?

CALVINO

No. I share no chauvinistic reactions. The knowledge of foreign cultures is a vital element of any culture; I don’t believe we can ever have enough of it. A culture must be open to foreign influences if it wants to keep its own creative power alive....

And this just because I like what it teaches:

INTERVIEWER

Are novelists liars? And if they are not, what kind of truth do they tell?

CALVINO

Novelists tell that piece of truth hidden at the bottom of every lie. To a psychoanalyst it is not so important whether you tell the truth or a lie because lies are as interesting, eloquent, and revealing as any claimed truth.

I feel suspicious about writers who claim to tell the whole truth about themselves, about life, or about the world. I prefer to stay with the truths I find in writers who present themselves as the most bold-faced liars. My goal in writing If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, a novel entirely based on fantasy, was to find in this way a truth that I would have not been able to find otherwise.

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1/30/22