Thoughts on Italo Calvino?I wrote a short text and was recommended him, skimmed around and seems like my sort of wacky meta-fun.Also trying to decide if I should read a translation or the original, as I don't speak Italian but speak Portuguese and French.In case I read a translation, would it be better in Portuguese instead of English due to language proximity?
Language proximity does not play into quality of translation much unless the languages are very close; in my experience it increases the odds of a poor translation since most any translator will be able to produce something good enough to sell. I have no idea about Portuguese and French translations of Calvino but William Weaver is well respected for his translations of Calvino and others.
Calvino is mostly not a language person. Most of his fun is the expense of the story.I'd say he translates rather well.
>>24735050I want to read If on a Winter's Night and Invisible Cities, but a short story collection I read of his was terrible. His writing felt like a bad imitation of Borges and the stories themselves went nowhere. Can anyone say if his novels better?
>>24736641>bad imitation of Borges and the stories themselves went nowhereYou probably will not like Calvino if that is all you got out of them. He is a very different sort of writer than Borges and if you did not see that, you probably will not get it. But Invisible Cities is short, give it a read.
>>24736641Why cant you just take the books and form your own opinion? Why do you need permission from strangers on what to read and what not?
>>24736776Go easy on him, he is obviously at least part retard.
>>24736776This is /lit/, we hate reading here, so every page counts.Chart rel, I want to start from Invisible Cities, but my autism always goes to "follow the chart, random person on the Internet knows best".
>>24736888That chart makes no sense. Invisible Cities is a good intro into Calvino; short, shows what he is about, and has enough to chew on for those who completely miss what he is about.
>>24736776I don't want to waste my time on a bunch more bullshit like Under the Jaguar Sun. It wasn't worth the trip to the library to check it out.>>24736767I meant in style not in content.
>>24737115>I meant in style not in content.I know.
>>24737115Out of every book he wrote you read the one that was published after his death and wasn't even complete, try anything else by him
>>24735050Temu version of Borges.
>>24737222Am I wrong to thing Borges is actually the overrated one? Some of his stories fall flat in the most awkward way and while his more conventional knife fighting stories are fantastic I don't know if that's what people even praise him for. Of course some of his more experimental work, at best, is mandatory reading. But Calvino has rarely disappointed me.
>>24737815>Some of his stories fall flat in the most awkward wayHe liked to use intertextuality and if you are not well versed in what ever sources he is referring to, they fail hard. Borges convinced me that intertextuality is terrible, or at least that a story should not rely on it. I do not see what people love about Borges.
