If on a winter’s night a traveler: The Three Levels of Inquiries

[Source]

After posting summary of the first half of the book, I decided not to do the second summary post, but immediately jump to the three stage readings.

Who is the central character of this book?

It’s definitely The Reader (and that includes us all, the readers of this book).

What does the central character want? What is standing in his way? And what strategy does he pursue in order to overcome this block?

Reading-wise, he wants to have a straightforward novel with clear plot and ending; he reads just for pleasure, to satisfy his appetite. Unfortunately he keeps stumbling upon unfinished novels, so he confronts the publisher, the writer, the literary authority; he travels around the world to get to the novels he desired. Parallel with his quest of books, the Reader is also attracted to Ludmilla, the Second Reader. He wants to have her for himself, but there are the writer and the translator who seem to be involved in her life. He pursues them to get his books as well as to win his girl.

Who is telling you this story?

Calvino uses second person point of view. Interestingly, he never reveals the name of the protagonist (The Reader), so actually he wants to address all the readers of his book.

Images and metaphors

There are several metaphors in those unfinished novels read by The Reader, but the most distinguished ones are probably:

The void – In the second novel, Irina is having vertigo when she looks down the void below the bridge. Later in the book, Calvino repeats this word ‘void’ several times to emphasize the unreality beneath words in books. The stories have no relation with real things in real life.

The invisible power – The sense of power or control over a person is dominating the unfinished novels, either from an organization (like in first novel where the man arriving at the station looking for a message from ‘the organization’) or a person (Irina over Alex in 4^th novel, or Jojo over Ruedi in 5^th novel, and in most of the novels). I think it represents how readers, without realizing it, are actually controlled by authors, publishers, and all authoritative agents in literary industry. The Reader and Ludmilla think they are controlling their own reading, but in reality they depend on how the author writes; the translator translates, the publisher prints and binds the book, and so on. One little fault, and that will affect our reading very much.

Beginnings and endings

The novel begins with the narrator asking The Reader to prepare himself on the position of comfortable reading. He points out that he does not expect anything from the book he’s about to read (You’re the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything… You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst.) I felt like Calvino here wants to dictate the Reader how to behave in reading, and kind of reprimand him on being passive or innocent towards his reading.

The ending is a resolution, with different result. Reading-wise, the Reader did not get the books he intended to read (and he seems okay with that), but he finally wins Ludmilla’s heart, and marry her.

Do you sympathize with the characters?

Both the Reader and Ludmilla represent parts of me, reading-wise. With the Reader, I share his enthusiastic quest for a more meaningful reading, although in different way. For me, it’s more of analyzing, philosophizing, and relating the story with real life; whereas The Reader’s focus is more physically. With Ludmilla, I share her desire to read freely without being influenced by the author or the institution who produces the books. In short, I sympathize with both of them for demanding and respecting the freedom in reading.

Does the writer’s technique give you a clue as to his “argument”—his take on the human condition?

From the way he hops from novel to novel without ever coming to completion, I think Calvino suggested that novels can never convey authors’ true intention completely to the readers. There is always gap between the two, especially when the reader is like Ludmilla or The Reader, who only read for pleasure; indifference of the author’s intention, or even existence.

And from how much the Reader struggle from wanting to read a good novel, the literary industry also has control over readers, though we do not feel it.

What exactly is the writer telling you?

That reading is an individual activity. Authors, publishers, translators, or whoever works in literary industry—and even country or sects—could try to control or persuade our reading, but we, readers, are free to have our own opinion on books we read. Marana and Flannery want Ludmilla to love them through their writing, but Ludmilla has her own way of appreciating books, which nobody can change or interfere.

Do you agree?

I agree that reading should not only for pleasure seeking or satisfying our desire (to reach the end). We should dig deeper than the surface of those printed words to get the author’s message. Because beneath the words—as Calvino said—there’s only void, unreal, and immaterial. Reading could be meaningful when we relate it with the real life; the author, the characters, and our present society.

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If on a winter’s night a traveler: Chapter 1 – 11

This Italo Calvino’s novel is probably the most complicated novel I have ever read in my life. From the beginning I have been criticizing every strange passage (and indeed, there are so many!), and put effort to note them down. I suspect there are similar aspects in those different unfinished novels, one theme that binds them. So, I was looking for it. Here are some of my thoughts on first half of the book. If you haven’t read it, you’d better stop reading right now as it would contain a lot of spoilers. It’s your choice of course, but you have been warned!

Novel # 1 – If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino

The main character of the whole book is the reader (or ourselves); he is reading Calvino’s latest novel: “If on a winter’s night a traveler”. It’s about a man who arrives at a station but misses the connection. He carries a suitcase, and his instruction is to meet a contact to exchange the suitcase with (he is anxious to get rid of it). Here I sensed an invisible power (organization); the man seemed to be an innocent pawn; only being used for a mysterious purpose. He wants to return to zero moment and reestablish the normal course. The organization is so powerful it can control police and railroads. There is also smoke from the locomotive which seems to block the narrator’s reading.

Novel # 2 – Outside the town of Malbork by Tazio Bazakbal

Gritzvi must switch places with Ponko, as each would stay with the other’s family to learn something about farming. Gritzvi is afraid of losing his past which would soon be Ponko’s, so he fights him. The narrator meets a guy who forces himself not to read anything because he is sick of all kinds of writing that bombard him in daily life.

Novel # 3 – Leaning from the steep slope by Ukko Ahti

The narrator of THIS novel (not our narrator--it’s a bit confusing, I know!) feels that the world sends him signals and messages. He meets a woman who often meets a convict in prison, and asks the narrator’s help to buy her a grapnel (anchor) with long rope. The fishers refuse to sell the grapnel, fearing that it will be used as an escape tool by prisoners. The narrator is also ‘forced’ to help a meteorologist to take care of his observatory while he is leaving, but then two men ask questions about the meteorologist. Seems that the innocent narrator has been used in some fishy trick, eh? While taking care of meteorological instrument, the narrator feels like controlling the universe. The story ends abruptly, and the Professor who is reading it explains that reading is reaching something immaterial through writing material (wordless language?). The Other Reader (who is reading together with our narrator) argues that as a reader she needs to know that the material book exist that she can read it. There is a sense of power here, we readers seems to lack control of books we like to read.

Novel # 4 – Without fear of wind or vertigo – Vorts Viljandi

On duty in a war, Officer Alex Zinnober helps a girl, Irina, to cross a bridge when she is having vertigo after looking at the void down below. He finds out that Irina is the girlfriend of his friend Valerian, whom he has been spying for a traitor. Irina is a dominating girl when the three are having sex. When this novel stops abruptly too, the narrator suggests The Other Reader (Ludmilla) to visit the publisher for explanation, but she refuses. She doesn’t want to involve too deeply in book publishing; she want to keep being innocent reader and receive books as finished goods to be devoured. The whole publishing houses are made disordered by Ermes Marana’s (translator) series of fraud.

Interesting quote:

“Beneath every word there is nothingness.”

“The world of those who deal with books professionally is more and more crowded and tends to become one with the world of readers.”

Novel # 5 – Looks down in the gathering shadow – by Bertrand Vandervelde

Ruedi killed Jojo, helped by Bernadette, because Jojo cheated him financially and ruined him; feeling that he was entirely in Jojo’s power. Ruedi wants to have a clean break, to start again from zero by erasing his past traces, but he finds that the pasts cannot be erased; they will entangle one another. Bernadette turns out to be demanding when insisting Ruedi to satisfy her sexual need. His wife also has power over Ruedi.

While in the publishing office, the narrator witness how books are treated as raw material or spare parts ready to be dismantled or reassembled; another sense of authoritative power? Marana then offers a new novel from an author who couldn’t finish his novel, but Marana offered him a computer program which can ‘finish’ any unfinished books. The existence of ghost writers, who can imitate author’s style to complete half-written text as if written by the author, is also mentioned. Another interesting fact is that there are novels which are paid in advance by publishers, involving banks and financing, through contracts with certain products to ‘scatter’ their brands into the books.

Interesting quotes about Authors:

“Exists and don’t exist at the same time.

“An invisible point from which the books came, a void traveled by ghosts.”

My thoughts

I think this is a book about book publishing industry. From the novels, the sense of ‘power’ or ‘control’ emerges most of the stories. And our main character, the narrator and Ludmilla, are trapped in the publishing house’ catastrophe in their needs of reading a good book; they are helpless. So, it is, perhaps, about reader vs publisher in the book publishing industry. Let’s see….

What’s in the titles?

This book title is unique (as well as the novels’ inside); it’s written without capital letters on the beginning of each word (which is common in title writing). So, it seems as parts of an unfinished sentence. Particularly when I reached novel # 4, the title intrigued me, because it seems to be in correlation with the title of novel # 3. Then I thought, what if the titles are part of a long sentence? So, I put them together, in order, and this is what I got:

If on a winter’s night a traveler outside the town of Malbork leaning from the steep slope without fear of wind or vertigo, looks down in the gathering shadow…

Interesting, eh? Now I can’t wait to read the whole book to know if the titles are really part of a sentence (very long, indeed); and what sentence that would be.

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