I mentioned Italo Calvino this morning, and he turns up this afternoon thanks to The Paris Review. They opened their archives for Italo Calvino, The Art of Fiction No. 130.
INTERVIEWER
What place, if any at all, does delirium have in your working life?
ITALO CALVINO
Delirium? . . . Let’s assume I answer, I am always rational. Whatever I say or write, everything is subject to reason, clarity, and logic. What would you think of me? You’d think I’m completely blind when it comes to myself, a sort of paranoiac. If on the other hand I were to answer, Oh, yes, I am really delirious; I always write as if I were in a trance, I don’t know how I write such crazy things, you’d think me a fake, playing a not-too-credible character. Maybe the question we should start from is what of myself do I put into what I write. My answer—I put my reason, my will, my taste, the culture I belong to, but at the same time I cannot control, shall we say, my neurosis or what we could call delirium.
***
CALVINO
I write by hand, making many, many corrections. I would say I cross out more than I write. I have to hunt for words when I speak, and I have the same difficulty when writing. Then I make a number of additions, interpolations, that I write in a very tiny hand. There comes a moment when I myself can’t read my handwriting, so I use a magnifying glass to figure out what I’ve written. I have two different handwritings. One is large with fairly big letters—the os and as have a big hole in the center. This is the hand I use when I’m copying or when I’m rather sure of what I’m writing. My other hand corresponds to a less confident mental state and is very small—the os are like dots. This is very hard to decipher, even for me.
My pages are always covered with canceling lines and revisions. There was a time when I made a number of handwritten drafts. Now, after the first draft, written by hand and completely scrawled over, I start typing it out, deciphering as I go. When I finally reread the typescript, I discover an entirely different text that I often revise further. Then I make more corrections. On each page I try first to make my corrections with a typewriter; I then correct some more by hand. Often the page becomes so unreadable that I type it over a second time. I envy those writers who can proceed without correcting.
The more I read of Calvino, the more he impresses.
I sent out "Road Tripping" to:
Narrative charged me $26. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. This will either be accepted or it will be rejected as the strangest thing they have ever seen
Thgis has been exhausting. LibreOffice crashes. I did a synopsis and a query letter and what I will call a proffer for Mad Duck. It has taken all afternoon - after a nap,a aftera dinner break.
Speaking of rejections, Exsolutas Press turned down “Between The Dead and the Dying”.
Thank you for your submission to Exsolutas Press. Although we must decline your submission this time, we appreciated the chance to consider it.
Thanks again. Best of luck with this.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Rosenheck
Exsolutas Press
I have thought highly of this one. What do I know.
And Boomer Lit Magazine bounced "Their Bright Future". Another, I thought was done rather well.
Thank you for your submission to Boomer Lit Magazine. We appreciated the chance to consider your submission, but unfortunately it does not meet our needs at this time.
This is not a reflection on the quality of your work. We often end up saying no to work that has tremendous merit, and we wish you the best in placing this work with another publication.
Deborah
I do not think I mentioned this rejection for "Aftermath", it shows up in the email as being "snoozed":
The editorial staff of Berkeley Fiction Review has read and reviewed your story, “Aftermath.” We gave your submission serious consideration, but regret to inform you that we will not be able to publish your story in our upcoming issue.
We appreciate your support and we are pleased that you chose to submit to Berkeley Fiction Review. Thank you for your submission and your continued interest in our journal.
Sincerely,
The Berkeley Fiction Review Editors—Twitter: @BerkeleyFictionInstagram: @berkeleyfictionreviewFacebook: @berkeleyfictionreviewWebsite: www.berkeleyfictionreview.org
YouTube turned up a movie I saw when a tenager, Spectre. Check it out. It applies the Holmes/Watson paradigm to the supernatural. A Gene Roddenberry work.
I am going to spend time with my email now. I have left only to get ice from the office. It is one of those days when when I hate autumn - drizzly, wet, cold.
sch
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