Calvin and the comparison with the modernity of Furious
"The Furious book is unique and can be read without reference to any other previous or next book, is a world unto itself where you can travel a long and wide, enter, leave, get lost. " So Italo Calvino, in the preface of his book told The Orlando Furioso by Italo Calvino " defines the most important work of Ludovico Ariosto: the poem speaks of a world in which you can enter and exit at any point and find out every time a plot is new and different with each reading, the greatness of the work is, in fact, precisely in its labyrinth structure, in which you really may not be able to reconnect with the story as a whole. Precisely for this reason, Calvin decided to write his book: to gather in 310 pages, 22 chapters, the wide and Ariosto's narrative, divided into 46 songs. The intent of the writer was also to translate into a more modern language, the text of the Furioso to better understand a sixteenth-century Italian that, despite its simplicity and similarity to ours, in some parts may remain obscure if you do not have adequate knowledge of vocabulary. The operation of Calvin does not, however, becomes a normal paraphrase: he proposes the verses of Ariosto, preceded by a summary of effective and passionate prose (after all he is a great admirer of the work and its author), in so that the player is behind an advantage with a rough idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the sixteenth-century poet says. At the end of the book also is an extensive section of notes, which explain and provide synonyms for the expressions Ariosto more difficult to interpret.
Calvin does not tell the whole story: it is limited to select, traveling in a zig-zag between the windings of the poem, the most important parts, those which help tell the story as a whole, but not completely rule out the details, which also are needed. He also does not follow closely the unfolding of the facts as they are reported in the original poem, but the episodes divided into themes, characters and events, so that the narrative is broken into parts, as Ariosto actually does: all the while to go meeting the reader by giving a version of the Furioso easier to navigate.
The contribution more providing valuable work consists in the aforementioned parties to support the prose poems of Ariosto: here the author does not merely summarize and to better specify the verses themselves from time to time offer: he would otherwise have come to consider them less important , they constitute the original poem, and then on what you should focus more attention, and then his book would not be different from anything in any summary of the work. In addition to this, in fact, the writer says what happens, lingering on the mood of a character or description of a landscape, explores the themes emerging from the original lines with almost philosophical reflections, ironically, just as the poet of the sixteenth century, making up some bizarre situations, sets out the particular techniques of narrative and style used by Ariosto. His prose is short, of dual nature: a prose fiction and criticism, which of course is a double contribution of the author. contribution which allows the work of Calvin to be not only work on the opera, but a real autonomous text.
There are also personal comments, which dwell more on the details, both on the poem, as the definition quoted at the beginning, and on its author. On Ariosto, Calvin highlights the links between him and his Characters: ago, for example, a comparison with Astolfo, unusual compared to other more traditional poet who see this reflected in her figure: "Never reveal anything about himself to us, what he thinks and what he feels, but the soul is Ariosto especially recognizable in him, lunar explorer who do not ever wonder about anything, who lives surrounded by the amazing and makes use of fairy items, magic books, metamorphosis and winged horse with the lightness of a butterfly "with these words, Italo Calvino to stress almost absent from his poem of Ariosto, at least for the events in the strict sense, because, just as the savior of the wits of Orlando seems normal to the lunar landscape and all of which makes use of magic, does not prove particular emotions in the subject narrated by himself, or at least not make them known.
As for the characters, Calvin pauses to describe them individually, but also makes general statements about them, we propose a possible classification : "There are those built of fairy pasta, which most rained blows upon him with lance and sword as you temper ... and there are those, no less noble and no less brave, made of dough that being human, receiving wounds are wounds that true, and it may die. " Calvin here, beyond the simple distinction in two categories of people Ariosto, mark the intent to fund Ariosto: to describe his characters by focusing more on the dynamics of the action on the creation of complex psychology that, in fact, matter to the poet is not to create characters with character true, but to establish an intense relationship between each character and the others, so that it may better to build this system around the complex web of relationships work. Hence the decision to allocate to each contain only one aspect of the immense human psychology and the distinction into two simple categories, without of course forgetting the major specifications of its most important characters as stated by Calvin himself.
In fact, our author does not forget to comment and the individual personality: "Orlando becomes, if not a real character, certainly living a poetic image, which had never been in a long series of poems that represented him with a helmet and armor. ", says about one of the main characters of Furioso, to emphasize the separation of Ariosto's chivalric tradition. Calvin, then, highlights the lack of importance that cover different characters but in the poems of chivalry have in general had always somewhere in the front row talking about Ferraù, Sacripante as knights and Rinaldo not necessary for the economy of the narrative. Finally, do not fail to note the role that covers the same fate in the actions of certain characters, is valuable in this regard, the description of processes Ruggiero: "Hard is the fate he has a destiny. The man destined advances and his footsteps can not take it there ... if the stars have decreed, in Ruggiero, a marriage of love, a glorious lineage, yet unfortunately a premature end .... "
The work itself, finally, focusing more on a point of view of narrative and stylistic choices is called "open" perhaps even with a small critical: it has a real beginning, serving as the continuation of ' Orlando Flirty of Boiardo, but not even seem to have an end, ending with yet another fight. But other than that, you certainly can not say that Calvin has not enjoyed make us appreciate, thanks to his skills as a writer and lover of literature, Furioso.
might be interesting for our discussion today is also a comparison with another book by Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies . It contains two sections: the first entitled, precisely, The Castle of Crossed Destinies , while the second is entitled The Tavern of Crossed Destinies . In both, our writer likes to write stories of different characters simply by combining the Tarot, which represent human figures and objects: " When the cards side by side in case they gave me a story where I recognized a sense, I begins writing, "says . An idea, that, according to his genius. He does tell characters themselves, meeting in a tavern, what has happened to them, right through the cards, having lost the magic word. The cards, which are the same at the disposal of all, thus functioning as a unifying element between the various events: they are folded in different ways depending on the story, thus creating "a finite number of elements whose combinations multiply to billions of billions," as Calvin suggests itself. These describe the different stories in detail and precise, even reserving space for the accurate reflections on individual circumstances and details of the figures, just as in Furious he said, focuses on particular aspects of the poem and its characters. Although the fact that tarot cards are the same for every story involves a little repetitive, the book is certainly full of originality.
For what purpose such a comparison between two books by the same author? In fact, the comparison does not stop between the two books, but mainly between Calvin and Ariosto: the Castle of Crossed Destinies the first behaves exactly like the second in 'Orlando Furioso . As an external narrator, Calvin, albeit in a more orderly and easy to Ariosto, as divided according to the stories of the protagonist without lumping them together, and put together weaves together, relying on combinations of the Tarot, the adventures of the characters, the their destinies, sometimes also providing more specifications, reviews, comments. Does not approach the work perhaps sixteenth-century writer? Indeed, the actions here are more numerous, their faces to lead the reader through the various plots. In this way imitate what he has achieved in Furious interpreted by him and said, whose main purpose is, as we said explicitly at the beginning, to accompany the fans of Ariosto's poem in a reading for this sufficiently simplified. Once again we can then distinguish a double Calvino: a storyteller and weaver of tales (akin to Ariosto), another guide and commentator (comparable to Calvin's first book in question).
Another link can be found, this time with the poem, Ariosto, and covers the topics covered in the Castle of Crossed Destinies in many stories similar to those celebrated by Ariosto, but with some differences. One, for example, lies in the different treatment of the theme of chivalry: Calvin never occurs to irony, which instead uses the sixteenth-century poet, just as sixteenth, in describing the values \u200b\u200band personalities, almost goes back to the medieval tradition emphasizing In some cases, many positive features, such as the availability of knights to help the weak. The code of chivalrous conduct thus enjoys a different view and is a major focus of the events narrated, together with a more specific theme of Furioso, love, and instead a new, money. Both create new events and new situations, they involve the search for a match or love or more money; this research, just as in Ariosto's poem, it is vain and empty, of something that you can not find. Love and money can also lead to suffering, especially the second, as in the history of Thief Sepulchre.
The Castle of Crossed Destinies can be regarded as a bridge between the two Orlando Furioso, the original and that of Calvin, allowing us to better understand what are the connections between these two, already initially developed. In particular, detailed the key aspects of the poem of Ariosto, which Calvin himself had revealed in his first book, but did not provide detailed information on his ideas about it, but indications that emerge in the second book, particularly about the world of chivalry .
The title of this paper reveals another aspect to be explored: the modernity of Furioso. In what sense can one speak of a modern writer of the Renaissance era is still far from the age modern self? This refers to the fact that Ariosto is beyond his age, almost as if he expected the man would come after him in new cultural epochs, closer to ours. Here's how the 'Orlando Furioso directly reflects the historical period in which it was written and is projected directly into the future.
First of all, through a new conception of the tradition of chivalry, that term has so far been nominated many times but that was not given it yet in terms of Ariosto. Ariosto takes into account its many medieval sources, belonging to the cycle Breton and Carolingian and tradition of cantari, no passion for the values \u200b\u200bthat characterize them, or to mock these values \u200b\u200bhave disappeared from society, but merely to create a literary pretext behind which expresses values \u200b\u200brather typical of his era. The poet is well aware of the distance that separates him from society and the virtues of chivalry and also wants to convey to the reader of this distance Furioso, in several ways: first reworking, in a very personal and subjective, the events and characters of previous tradition, already known but with very different characteristics (and this is largely the originality of the poem), then, using tricks of style, as that makes extensive use of irony, with which you can look past the Knights with a certain superiority. A review of the literature of chivalry that we can not talk about breaking with the past, even with the recent 's Orlando Flirty of Boiardo, review that is permitted by the very fact that now the world expression of that literature no longer exists for some time.
This reform does not end, however, in Ariosto's narrative, but also unavoidably in themes: why the prince of the tradition of chivalry, the war is put, as the tradition itself, in the background. For Ariosto no matter the vicissitudes of war between Christians and Saracens, descriptions of the battles involving the other hand the individual characters, their stories and their thoughts, which in the chaos of war that can not be marginalized. Then enhances the value of the individual, in full harmony with the Renaissance culture. In support of this, leaves more room for deeply human themes: love, bringing joy and suffering, friendship, loyalty, madness, they replace, in part or in whole, courage, heroism , strength, bravery in battle. Furthermore, he decides to keep some areas as the Magic (characteristic of the Breton cycle) and research, these , but change their nature. So, why not the magic is just a fantasy element, but is of dual nature: it becomes a means of deception and thus power, but also the creator of art, which Ariosto configured as the expression of human domination of reality and its ability to self-determination. The research, however, does not commit more a knight in a long journey made to find its identity, a way that will have an end, however, becomes a wandering space and unfulfilled, to pursue nothing but illusions.
Revision even of the characters, seen as men, and here is the biggest step, breaking away not only from the world of chivalry: Ariosto's man is not only the Renaissance man, but is more modern, closer to us, because the poet knows that you will step forward from its present. A new man for self, and not only masters of their own destiny, and not prey to the case of a Providence.
is also the modern view that Ariosto's self (and here we move our field of investigation), that of a demiurge, a Shaper of his work, which necessarily becomes a creation, without the ' draw on sources could jeopardize its originality. How advanced is the idea of \u200b\u200bturning his attention to the reader, with interventions in the first person to guide and remind him that everything is unreal Furioso. But the reader is not only the Este court in which the poet's work: the poem goes beyond these boundaries, the author wants it to spread, hence the decision to adopt a language that can impose itself on all the Italian dialects, the Tuscan ( according to the theories expressed by Pietro Bembo). Finally, it is also the new genre of Furioso, which is configured as the prototype of the modern novel that, although starting from the matter of chivalry, at the same time it declares the end.
For all these reasons, the jump in time, the projection into the future that Ludovico Ariosto and his poem task is not trivial. If a contemporary author as Calvin has taken them into account (and not only admiration for literature) and examined them carefully, it means that he also found them closer to us than the appearance and the time that separates us they would have us believe.
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