invisible cities

[turbogrrl]

"The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it.

The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are no inferno, then make them endure, give them space."

— italo calvino, Invisible Cities


I learned of Italo Calvino from a girl too cool and too smart and too busy for me; we had one ill-fated date, at a too-loud bar, followed by greasy food at Ben's neither of us wanted. The words we didn't say were interrupted by the Ethiopian cabbie, who after dropping her off, instead of taking me home, drove me to an Ethiopian restaurant and asked me to marry him. I have nothing more of her but books read and unread, a litany of thoughts unspoken, vague wonderings. That said, it was worth it, to have discovered Italo.

Comments

[cheetahmaster.livejournal.com]

and asked me to marry him.

...

Huh.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

I've had a lot of random proposals in my life. Only one serious one, though- probably why I only got married once.

Guys are strange, really. Especially ethiopian and italian and nigerian ones.

[csn.livejournal.com]

The second method is basically applied Buddhism.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

Its a good book. I think you'd enjoy it.

[csn.livejournal.com]

I like magical realism, I'll check it out.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

[he-who-wanders.livejournal.com]

Don't feed the troll!

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

but it amuses me...

[csn.livejournal.com]

She's cute..

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

fortunately, she's too smart for that. One of the smartest people I've met, actually. When I met her she had a phd in chemistry and was also practicing law, and was in her 20s. hence the too smart and too cool for me.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I ran across this today and thought you might want to read it if you hadn't.

http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1000/vidal/essay.html

Surprisingly, Time and Newsweek, though each put him on the "book page," were not bad, though one thought him "surrealist" and the other a "master of fantasy"; he was, of course, a true realist, who believed "that only a certain prosaic solidity can give birth to creativity: fantasy is like jam; you have to spread it on a solid slice of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing, like jam, out of which you can't make anything."

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

oh, wow, thank you! no, I hadn't read it, and it's quite lovely.