Visibility

Calvino's concepts of visibility asked us the question of where images come from. He gives us the idea that we get the images that we think from images that other people have seen. It is all one large collection of images. He compares it to an iceberg, however, I thought an iceberg would be a rather cliche image to go with the photo and I also didn't really like the idea of an iceberg to represent this idea of collective images.

The image I chose, was also obviously a huge group of people. I also like the idea of all there hands touching, this to me represents the collection of and exchanging of all the ideas. There are also a group of many different ages. This to me represents the different images that can be exchanged among generations and groups of people.

This to me didn't really make me think of a book, as much as a movie. This made me think of Avatar. The way that they can read and see everything through the forest, how everything is connected and the way that they can communicate with one another and with nature. With a central source that they call "Eywa". This to me is like the iceberg, which is the central system of all the ideals and images. The connections in nature and to one another for me is like the sharing of ideals and images among humans, that Calvino speaks of.

Lightness revisited

Sam had asked me to find an image for lightness. I wanted to continue with the idea I had from the beginning, the idea that Calvino had with lifting the weight of the world off your shoulders. The idea that the weight of the world is settling on all of us and it makes us heavy writers, as well as making our life heavy. This is something I am experiencing currently, and so I find it a lot easier to write on, then I did before.

One of Calvino's missions in life was to put lightness into not only his writing, but into people, cities and obviously language itself. One of the way he suggested this happening, is by speaking about the weight we have all felt at sometime on our shoulders. When we feel this weight, it affects not only our personal lives, but our writing. The language that we use is also much heavier, we have a tendency to use words when stressed that wouldn't be used when we're in a comfortable and more relaxed state.

The reason I chose this image, was because not only of the light that is coming through the trees, but also the bird. Calvino uses the bird in the lecture speaking of direction. We talked about how the bird is light as a feather, but can also has a sense of direction and a purpose. How a feather, though it is light, doesn't have the direction that the bird has. This picture speaks to the bird aspect.

Also, the look on the woman's face in the photo. Though she looks upset, her body language also looks much more relaxed and is in an isolated area with only the bird.

When I think of lightness, I think of a book that I've read to the kids I babysit and also one I read as a child. The book Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown. When you read this book before you go to bed, a certain lightness comes over you. Saying Goodnight to all the things in your day and it makes you smile. I'm sure this isn't the kind of literature that Calvino was really thinking of, but it will always work for me.

Also, I like the innocence in the book, which to me is a reflection of lightnes. When you don't really have all the stress and worry of a grown up, your life is much lighter and much more free. You have the ability to imagine and create with no repercussions or adult hold backs. How many of us as a child haven't, at some point, said Goodnight to a stuffed animal or to something in our room? Or after Toy Story, wondered if our toys came to life when we were gone or after we fell asleep? This is the lightness reflected in almost all children's books.

Exactitude

Calvino as has been pointed out many times before, defines Exactitude in three fairly simple ways.

1) A well-defined and well-calculated plan for the work in question
2) An evocation of clear, incisive, memorable visual images.
3) A language as precise as possible both in choice of words and in expression of the subtleties of thought and imagination.(p.55-56)

This is why I chose the compass. Or in this case a compass rose. This matches all three of the definitions that are set out to us in Calvino's six memos. It gives us a direction of where it is we are going as well as being a well known image. It isn't bright or flashy, but it does always give us the mental recollection of maps and of having a direction. Also, it doesn't ever make us question exactly what it is we're looking for.

To expand on that, we see a compass and know that it will always point us North, South, East or West. Occasionally, it will point us Northwest, Southwest, North East or South East. However, we are all aware of this from a young age and many of us are taught at a young age in geography how to read maps and all those cool little tricks to remember which direction you're going.

When I decided upon a compass rose as my image, my mind immediately jumped to the book series by Phillip Pullman, also known as the His Dark Materials trilogy. The first book is called "The Golden Compass," where we discover a compass that is almost the exact opposite of Calvino's idea of exactitude. Only a few number of people can read and understand the compass, which is coded in many different symbols and is never clear as to exactly the situation that it is speaking of. It could be referring to a situation or a person.

Though this doesn't demonstrate Exactitude in the slightest, it shows us what NOT to do in our writing and how exactitude can be hard to comprehend. Lyra is lucky in the sense that she can understand the compass and read it, some people even call her blessed, however because of this fact, when the compass is attempted to be used by others, it is completely useless. Though this is useful in the story, it is NOT useful for us in understanding the concept and ideals of exactitude.