| Author | Message | ||
     Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
I often feel like some sort of evangelist trying to spread the word of Italo Calvino -- but I'm not very effective at it. I think I've succeeded in converting a total of 4 people in the past twenty years. It's proving to be a hard slog. for sintance, buying a copy of Cosmicomics as a present for Tim Lebbon's birthday didn't work: and that's typical. I know there are other people out there (some of them floating among these boards) who are also Calvino enthusiasts. Please come and say hello! | ||
| Clive (Clive) Username: Clive Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 81.104.165.168 |
I love Calvino as i mentioned in the other thread. I said 'If On A Winters Night A Traveller' was my favourite but perhaps it may be 'Invisible Cities' which i think is kind of uber-Calvino and the one i would suggest to people to read first. It's the kind of book that inspires. I've lost track of the amount of people i've come across attempting art or photography or sculpture or film based on, or inspired by that book. Utterly wonderful. He's hardly a neglected writer though so i'm not sure why your evangelism is ineffective.You'd certainly find him in some W.H Smiths or Waterstones. I think most of my friends and family love a bit of Calvino! I also really liked the Tarot based'The Castle Of Crossed Destinies' particularly the oversized edition that has the cards as colour plates. I really should re-read Cosmicomics though as i don't think i read the whole lot of it. | ||
| Clive (Clive) Username: Clive Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 81.104.165.168 |
Also worth a mention is the great anthology, 'Fantastic Tales' he edited. Some wonderful pieces in that. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
By my 'evangelism' I meant only within the borders of the horror world. Obviously Calvino doesn't need me in the slightest in the outer world, where he is (as you say) extremely well known. But I've always had trouble persuading horror writers to give him a go. I recommend the recently published Complete Cosmicomics which contains all the stories from the first Cosmicomics plus all the Qfwfq tales from Time and the Hunter plus some previously untranslated Qfwfq stories. When you read them all together like this, you also get competing astronomical hypotheses as the starting points for different tales, and it's interesting to see how each 'alternative take' interacts and contrasts with the others. So there's an extra layer of complexity that the first volume on its own doesn't provide. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.46.212 |
I don't think there are many (if any) here who confine themselves only to reading genre work. I've been reading Calvino (and many other 'obscure' authors) for many years (I became interested in him through The Castle of Crossed Destinies). Another writer I admire who doesn't seem to have the recognition he deserves in the English-speaking world is Leo Perutz. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Mea culpa! I know nothing about Leo Perutz other than Borges rated him very highly. Ex Occidente is planning a tribute volume to Perutz, but I won't be contributing to that for obvious reasons (I wouldn't know what kind of story to try to write!) | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.78.35.185 |
> Another writer I admire who doesn't seem to have the recognition he deserves in the English-speaking world is Leo Perutz. Funny, I just mentioned Perutz in the EO thread! He's superb and I recommend everyone to track down his stories, you can find them between amazon's 2nd hand books for example. By today's standards his dialogue features too many explanation marks, but it must be said that his stories move briskly along, are very entertaining and he has a certain demonic talent to lull you into a false sense of comfort when suddenly tragedy really hits. I am currently reading The Marquis of Bolibar. Splendid stuff, really. "The Swedish Cavalier" or "Leonardo's Judas" are great books to start. In the 2nd book Leonardo Da Vinci is painting the last supper and can't finish it as he doesn't know how to depict Judas. He has discussed with prisoners, murderers etc, but he can't find the deep betrayal that characterises Judas. Then the story brilliantly switches to another character... > other than Borges rated him very highly. Graham Greene did so as well. > Ex Occidente is planning a tribute volume to Perutz, but I won't be contributing to that for obvious reasons (I wouldn't know what kind of story to try to write!) I think (as I hinted at) that typical key Perutz elements are: - a historical setting - a hint of perhaps something supernatural (like, in The Swedish Cavalier, a mysterious old man who could possibly be the devil) - sparkling, vivid and often humorous dialogue - witty observations of people - and definitely: sudden tragedy from an unexpected corner. If I would have some writing talent, that's how I would proceed! | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
I love dialogue with too many exclamation marks! That's my favourite kind! Tom, have you ever read All ABout H. Hatterr by G.V. Desani? It's a sort of Magic Realist comedy set in India in the 1940s. Nearly every sentence ends with an exclamation mark! It's great and very funny! | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.78.35.185 |
That book you quote indeed seems one to try. FYI I almost forgot, but a few months ago I made a concise video review about two Perutz books. You may like to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8whvYGmeqw | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Superb! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.46.212 |
Well said, Tom! I think Perutz was a terrific writer. Another novel I enjoyed was Saint Peter's Snow. I just gave it to my dad for his birthday (he has similar tastes in fiction), along with Little Apple, which I haven't yet read. Glad to hear a tribute volume is in the works! My all-time favourite non-British/American author is E.T.A. Hoffmann. He remains curiously underrated, despite the huge impact and influence he had on so many writers, from Poe to Dostoevsky and Gogol and right on to Angela Carter, in more recent years. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
E.T.A. Hoffmann is great. What was the name of that character who used to under-react to major incidents and over-react to mild incidents? Krespel? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.46.212 |
Sounds like Krespel (or 'Rath' or 'Councillor' Krespel to give him his full title) to me... unless there is another character in Hoffmann who flings women out of windows with such abandon, or who threatens to summon the devil to wring the neck of any guest who makes the most innocent of comments! |