Facing Electronic Literature

"Connections between events, people, and things in the world." Calvino suggests that multiplicity is a way of connecting us to literature. I think that finding a way to connect with literature is the best way to read. Finding something in a story that relates to your own life makes reading even more enjoyable. Finding multiple ways to connect is what Calvino wants us to know. The concept of multiplicity could simply be said as a connection but I know it's much more deep than that. Calvino tells us that knowledge is the awareness of the incapability of two opposite polarities. I understand this as we find a connect in things that we normally don't find a connection. When I read I am constantly trying to find something to connect to. Some times I visualize the house to be my own just so I have some thing to connect to. Calvino makes multiplicity hard to connect with but it is not impossible to do.

I choose this picture to represent multiplicity because it shows connections between events, people, and things in the world. The newspaper is the perfect print literature to find connections in. This photo is also easy to connect with and that's what I wanted to address. Looking at this picture allows lots of memories and connections to arise. The glasses and the pin can draw lots of connections for me. I also like how there is a circle drawn on the newspaper. To me this shows that a connection has been made with the paper and the events taking place. Having multiple connections with literature it what I think of multiplicity.

"Visibility can give warning of danger. We may be losing a basic human faculty: the power of bringing visions into focus with our eyes shut, of bringing forth forms of colors from lines, of black letters on a white page, and in fact of thinking in terms of images." This is how I learn, in terms of visual images. It's easier for me to visualize things when I read and basically everything in my life. If you show me an example of something, I will jump right into it. Calvino made a statement that we learn to see before we read. This is where simple minded rhyming couplets provide no illuminating information. I think this suggests that we should provide our kids and students with more visual stimulating readings. Being visual is a concept that Calvino suggests because seeing is usually believing. A visual image is a trigger to the brain where as other things do not do as much. Being visual is everything in my mind. Being a visual reader is what Calvino wants us to be.

I choose this image because you are able to bring this vision into focus with your eyes shut. You can visualize the water running and the apples floating in water. If this was described in a piece of literature, you can easily see what it may look like. Calvino says that a visual image can trigger the brain and I think this image does just that. The splashing of the water around the apple triggers the brain and builds connections right away. This image is exactly what visibility represents in my understanding of Calvino.

Calvino says exactitude is, "a well-defined and well-calculated plan by which the text is constructed." Being exact in which a text is planned is what authors do. I think exactitude is the concept of being memorable and clear. I have a problem with flow in my writing sometimes because I have a hard time putting all my thoughts together. Calvino's exactitude gives me perspective on improving my writing. Making my writing memorable and clear is what I need to work on. Calvino's writing was not always clear to me but it was memorable in the sense that I took something away from it. Being exact in our writing is the concept I think Calvino wants us to learn. I found this picture of trees making an X with their shadows and this makes me think of being exact. The X tells us where we need to be and this is where we should go.

I chose this image because it shows X marks the spot. Calvino states that exactitude is a well-defined and well-calculated plan in which a text is constructed. This image shows direction and stability. I think this is what Calvino wants out of literature, he wants a precise plan that shows direction. A focus is what I think of when it comes to exactitude. This image gives us an exact focus. X marks the stop is what I understand from Calvino's exactitude.

"Time takes no time in a story." Calvino discusses how an author can jump days, months, or years in a single sentence. To help understand this concept Calvino gives the horse as an example. The horse is a means of transportation with it's own pace, a trot or a gallop. But the horse really means mental speed. The horse can be an emblem for speed and mental speed all together. This makes a lot of sense to me because I ride horses and understand how they function. In literature time is usually a for a wealth and to be spent at leisure. This symbolizes the horse to a tee. If you think about it the horse is for people who have the time and money to spend. Riding a horse is like riding through a story. Horses gallop from place to place with out stopping unless need be. That is how a narrative usually goes in a story. The plot moves right along only stopping when necessary. The horse is a quick animal and narratives are quick as well. To me the horse it the best way to think about quickness. Mental and physical quickness.

"Festina Lente" Hurry Slowly.

I chose this image because of Calvino's example of the horse. I have been around horses a lot and I understand how they function and act. Calvino tells us time takes no time in a story. This can be true for a horse as well. A horse has true speed but also mental speed as well. Horses can run, gallop, trot and prance. Each one of these have a different time narrative to them. This image shows a horse kicking up dust symbolizing speed. But the stillness of the picture also shows the slowness of a trot. A horse symbolizes Calvino's quickness to a tee in my understanding.

"One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather." The concept of being the bird is to have direction and the ability to make choices. The feather symbolizes free falling with no direction and no ability to make choices. This applies to everyday life but I think this also applies to how literature is formed. Calvino explained that most of the lessons in stories lie at the literal meaning. When reading a novel there is always the base line plot and then the extra things are filled around the plot. Does this mean the plot is the lightness or is the extra detail the lightness. In my point of view I think the plot line is the lightness. Calvino brings the idea of being literal into play right away and it has stuck with me and it's hard to let go of this idea because it's an easy and light concept. The concept of lightness I think can be literal and can be a basis of our life. Calvino gives examples of heavy ideas yet he tell us they are light. I am starting to think everything can be light if we allow it. We are all birds in our life but I think we are feathers sometimes as well. To me lightness is the literal plot of anything and we just add heaviness ourselves.

I was trying to find an image for lightness and what the image of lightness can mean. I found this image of a red and orange feather. I decided I wanted to go for the literal meaning of lightness because I feel like that's what Calvino wanted me to understand about lightness. This image shows a bird resting on a cat's tail and the cat's tail is hardly leaning. The literalness of this is exactly what I was looking for. The bird is not in flight and I like that because it shows how light a bird can be with out flying. A feather has no direction but this bird will take off is an exact direction. This image shows my understanding of Calvino's lightness.