Multiplicity is demonstrated most effectively in encyclopedic works. Although no one was able to complete the task of creating a wholly encyclopedic work, they got an “A” for effort in Calvino’s grade book. Carlo Emilio Gadda saw the world as a network of connections; a system of systems which are all conditionally related.
He attempted to create a contemporary novel that resembled an encyclopedia. He was not successful and neither was another author: Flaubert. He tried to create an “Absolute Book” but it quickly turned into pedagogy. However, through his research for the book he became an encyclopedia himself because he was so knowledgeable about all of the different topics he researched (science, horticulture, anatomy, medicine, etc.).
This process superficially reminds me of when I was first starting to read. I would always pick up one of my siblings’ books for their classes (mind you, they are at least 8 years older than me) and I would try to work my way through them. However, I would always encounter a word that I didn’t understand so I would look it up in an encyclopedia or dictionary or some other reference book. Then I would become side-tracked learning about this other subject and by the time I made my way back to the novel I was reading I would have forgotten the plot-line. I imagine that writing an encyclopedic work would involve a lot of that type of distraction.
Calvino says that this type of overly-ambitious attitude is pivotal to literature. As writers, we must strive to represent all areas of knowledge; past, present, and future modes of thinking.
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