Facing Electronic Literature

"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.