Chapter 87 Italo Calvino and the Millennium to Come

A friend sent a book, Italo Calvino's "Memorandum for the Future Millennium", and I am reading it.This book is the draft of his speech, and he died before he could speak or finish the draft.The speeches were titled as follows: Ease, Speed, Observation, Definiteness, and Complexity.There is also a "coherence", which has not been written; so I have been wondering what he will write all day long, and what is "coherence".Italo Calvino pointed out that in the next millennium, literature will continue to flourish, and these six literary heritages will also be carried forward.I have always liked Calvino, and after reading this book, I like him even more.

Italo Calvino's "Our Ancestors" is loved by everyone who has read it.This is his work when he was young. I think this book is a model of "lightness".After middle age, he began to explore the infinite possibilities of novel art. I have read the works of this period-not everyone will like this book.I can't force you to like every one of his books, but I think you must like his idea: the art of fiction has infinite possibilities.Isn't that bad?Not long ago, a friend read my novel and said to me: It seems that the novel can be written in a new way-this kind of evaluation makes me ashamed: I have not explored infinity, and I am far behind Calvino.I think there is a problem with this friend's thinking - if he is not a doctor of literature but an ordinary reader, then there will be no problem.

The editor invited me to write a small article for the celebrity teahouse, and I actually mentioned Calvino and literary heritage, which is not the talk of the teahouse.To tell you the truth, I don't know what to chat about in a teahouse.I have neither cats nor dogs nor a car.When others are playing with cats and dogs, I am either tinkering with computers or thinking about literature—if you want to hear about computers, I can tell you that you can buy 800 yuan for 250 yuan in Zhongguancun. Mega memory stick, cheap to death... I don't think this is a talking point in the teahouse.Possibly I'll get a cat and a dog too, and buy a car to make myself guilty - I think the price of the car is outrageous, by the way.A Korean low-end car sells for three to hundreds of thousands, and the whole world has never heard of it.As for cats and dogs, I think it is food.I have eaten one cat and five dogs more than twenty years ago.From a cat lover's point of view, I'm a Cannibal (Cannibal = cannibal).So, I can only talk about Calvino...

Calvino's is this story: Marco Polo stands before the Great Khan of Mongols and tells about the cities he saw on his journey to the east, each city is a symbol, and all are clearly visible.After reading that book, I had a dream all night, and I saw cities floating in the void like grotesque Kongming lanterns.The average literary reader will say, well, I see the city, let's tell the story of this city-for Calvino's omnipotent mind, it is so difficult to tell a story.But he didn't tell a single story, and continued to enumerate new cities, trying to be as precise as possible until the end of the book.I generally understand what Calvino wants to do: for an author, he wants to have all the literary qualities: complete ease, rapidity, visibility, certainty and complexity, plus coherence.After all these are available, the book written must be good-looking and can satisfy all literary readers.Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be easy, but it has to be tried - it's to ensure that readers will have books for the next millennium.I don't think anyone would be interested in that topic either—but no, that's all I know.