Six Memos

for the Next Millenium.

 "We are in 1985, and barely fifteen years stand between us and the new millennium. For the time being I don’t think the approach of this date arouses any special emotion. However, I’m not here to talk of futurology, but of literature. The millennium about to end has seen the birth and development of modern languages of the West, and of the literatures that have explored the expressive, cognitive, and imaginative possibilities of these languages. It has also been the millennium of the book, in that it has seen the object we call a book take on the form now familiar to us. Perhaps it is a sign of our millennium’s end that we frequently wonder what will happen to literature and books in the so-called post-industrial era of technology. I don’t much feel like indulging in this sort of speculation. My confidence in the future of literature consists in the knowledge that there are things that only literature can give us, by means specific to it. I would therefore like to devote these lectures to certain values, qualities, or peculiarities of literature that are very close to my heart, trying to situate them within the perspective of the new millennium."

prefácio de Calvino às suas lectures, tendo ficado a última por escrever, "Consistency".

costumo gostar de tudo em Calvino, mas As Cidades Invisíveis é um dos livros mais belos que alguma vez foi escrito: assim o vejo. mais belo também porque me alterou a visão, alterou no início e condicionou no seguimento, tal como uma descoberta totalmente inovadora altera a percepção do mundo.