"Multiplicity"

Calvino's fifth and final lecture is centered around Multiplicity. This chapter was rather complicated to me. One thing that I came away with was that authors do have a tendency to look for other literary models, forms of inspiration, starting points, from which they can add to and move beyond to experience within their own work a type of personal epiphany or "ah-ha" moment. Multiplicity could be a kind of self-knowledge. The truth is, authors must be exposed to something generic or common before they can remove themselves from it. The external, foundational inspiration must be sought out so that they can create something new. As we have discusses in class, it is important that it is established what something is not before it can be determined what it is. That seems to be what Calvino is getting at when he talkes about Multiplicity in the future literary. A big part of the Multiplicity of literature are what Calvino considers to be different types of texts. There is the unified-text, the multifold-text, the form-less all encompossabing text, the non-systematic philosophical text, and finally the hyper-novel. These differnt types of novels leave the possibility of knowledge exhaustion to be unrealistic. Whether the texts have various possible endings, interpretations, or lots of simultaneous input, the work must originiate from something before it can blossom with multiplicity into something else.

I have always been intrigued by this image. It is made up completely of tiny individual dots, but if you stand away from the painting all that is seen is the larger, complete image. If the viewer stands close to the painting then the individual dots become visible. To me this painting is a good representation of multiplicity because first and foremost multiple repetitions of the dot are absolutely necessary to create the completed image. Also, I feel that this image speaks to multiplicity in that the image could not have come about and exist as it does today without the foundation of the dot. The artist of this literary work had to seek out the way to create this new work, and in order to do that, that artist returned to something fundamental, the dot.

Multiplicity is relevant to the up-and-coming world of electronic literature because the creation and inspiration of these works will orginially be spun from something fundamental. Most likely a fundamental element of print literature. There will also be works that represent and have an intertextuality between them wether one is from the electronic lit collection and one is from the print based collection or both are from the ELC. Multiplicity is about the inter-connectedness of the works. How works inspire and complete eachother at fundamental and advanced levels. Just as the dot is very fundamental, when it is multiplied in a consice way, images such as the one above are the result.

Literary Example: Life of Pi by Yann Martel (I love this book, and really enjoy Brian Moser's choice for this book to be the main focus of his blog).

This novel is about a young Indian boy who is shipwrecked with several animals. At the end of his survival adventure, each animal comes to represent a corresponding human character within the novel. This book has the element of multiplicity as it shows our connection to the world and the things around us, each influencing the other.