I can't get my mind off of Calvino's Invisible Cities. I want to read it, devour it, pick it to pieces, rub it into my palms, and wrap it around me like silk. Love. It. That said, I keep wondering how we can utilize his genius in our own writing.
"At the end of three days, moving southward, you come upon Anastasia, a city with concentric canals watering it and kites flying over."
Really, the text as a whole is what I'm looking at--this quotation doesn't do a great job of highlighting what I'm interested in, which is the idea of speaking to someone. I'm bridging Calvino and something Taylor wrote, where she imagined Luca as a young boy. Two parter:
1.) Take a cue from Calvino or the dramatic monologue, in which the narrator speaks to a very specific audience--we have to know, through your words, who s/he speaks to. You'll take them on a guided tour through the city, but not just random, varied sites. Rather...
2.) Introduce them to a specific person. I like the use of Luca because, particularly for us, he has such a specific job. Introduce your audience/the "you" to someone heavily characterized by something in particular--their job, the first thing you saw them doing, a conversation you had with them, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment