Italo Calvino Kept Calling Me

I begin the week with the bright intention not to be devoured by the administrative deluge which defines business in the modern age. I sip my coffee and pretend that I am waiting for Sartre or Camus to join me at the Café de Flor. I resist the temptation to turn on my computer so I can keep the grim spectacle at bay for at least another twenty minu... See more

“Reading,” he says, “is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid, material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present, something else that belongs to the immaterial, invisible world, because it can only be thought, imagined, or because

... See more

Italo Calvino on reading as imagination https://t.co/zD8gaORWTf

Need I say that I hated freewriting at first? Allowing one’s ideas on to the screen with no quality control violates everything the uptight perfectionist stands for, even though you can always edit or delete it later. Still, the method surprises me, over and over. Sometimes because it leads to good writing or creative solutions, and at other times

... See more