"Lightness"

Lightness is explained by Calvino by using an example from Greek mythology, Persues slaying Medusa and then carrying the head around. Perseus carries the head for protection but does so with a healthy fear of the head's possible power over him, even though the monster is dead. This is how we must think about lightness. The literal weight of the world and it's activities seem to be the counter part of lightness in literature. Our focus should be on viewing the world without being caught up in it, viewing with a relfective essence. If this reflective removal from the "heaviness" of the world can actually be achieved we must still carry "the head" around just as Persues did. We cannot be tricked into thinking it is okay to forget how this heaviness was overcome, otherwise we will be once again caught up in the heaviness, most likely without being aware of it.

This image is a painting by the French artist Edgar Degas. This example exemplifies Calvino's concept of lightness within the future literary. Just as Calvino chose to use classic literature examples to examplify something he feels will be found in future literary works, I too chose to use a realtively older image. Please do not be distracted by the evident fact that the subjects of this painting are balerina dancers. Yes, this type of subject would seem to examplify lightness, but it is not the subject that is important here. As I am sure you can see, the image is painted in a way that it is almost blurred. However, it is not blurred in a way to cause confusion. Calvino's lightness operates on the same level. Just as the picture is clearly a painting of two dancers, the literary must be clear and consice, but just as the dancers representation is somewhat removed from the heaviness of reality, the literary must also be removed in the same sort of way. It is only with this type of "Heavy worldiness removal" that the literary will progress and move forward. Lightness in the literary is a sort of new-ness that is able to be seen by a clear blurring. I hope that this image is an example of how lightness can be achieved, while still containing the essential substance to be consumed and understood. The dancers are light in the sense that the meaning portrayed seems not to be the heavy "balerina dancers" meaning, but rather it conveys a meaning of "movement". The Literary must move beyond the heavy obvious and into the lightness of using the world to see things in a new way.

I think back to the Electronic Literature example of "The Jews Daughter". This somewhat revolutionary piece is constructed in a very unfamiliar way. As we discussed in class, as various words are scrolled over, different sections of txt change. It is all encompassed in a single screen. This way of scanning for the new text while still making sense of the story could not have been arrived at without reading first being established by the print form. The print form here could be seen as the "heavy form". However, without the established print form and the method for reading it, the way of reaindg "The Jews Daughter" would not be new. Electronic Literature must be a relfection of what the world already knows. Present, but not tied down by those ideas and conceptions about what literatue is or should be. Electronic Literature will only survive with a keen awareness of what it is following just as Perseus continued to carry the monsters head and treat it with care.

Literary example: The poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

This poem said to be the result of an opium induced dream, is the piece of literature that came to mind when I thought about Calvino's concept of lightness. The poem is so mystical, yet each element represents something real. The way the world is veiwed in the mysticim of the poem, allows the reader to be removed from the heaviness of the world, and in some ways almost see the world through a relfective glass, rather than actually being in the reality.