The emblem from within Slaughterhouse-Five that I chose to represent this quality comes from a scene where Billy decides that an appropriate epitaph for his gravestone would be “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.” This absurd statement sums up Billy’s absurd view on life: Accept it as is because it’s not possible to change. This image was printed [...]
Emblem of Lightness
April 21, 2009
Design of Lightness
April 21, 2009
To help readers visualize lightness in Slaughterhouse-Five, I decided to utilize the form of a broken infinity sign. The infinity sign is associated with the number eight in McNab’s book. For McNab, eight is associated with wholeness and the completion of a process. Completion is about coming full circle back to the beginning, she argues. [...]
Emblem for Lightness
February 24, 2009
When I consider the essence of Calvino’s lightness, the emblem that comes to mind is that of Edward R. Murrow on March 9, 1954. On this particular evening, Murrow presented a special half-hour edition of his show See It Now titled “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy.” In the show, Murrow confronted McCarthy’s Red Scare, [...]
Analogy for Multiplicity
February 24, 2009
As I pondered Calvino’s ideas about the value of multiplicity in literature, I was reminded of a recent lecture in a mass communications course. In that particular lecture, the professor showed us how coverage of the Florida Gators’ recent national football championship changed from media outlet to media outlet based on each organization’s particular relationship [...]
Analogy for Lightness
February 23, 2009
The aspect of Calvino’s lightness memo that I think best explains his view of the value is the process of removing weight to achieve lightness. It’s a simple procedure: Shakespeare achieves melancholy, for example, by taking sadness and removing its weight. This idea appeals to my personal aesthetic of showing the bare essentials and revealing [...]
