Multiplicity: Emblem

I was going to make the brain my emblem for Multiplicity but I really wanted to incorporate the idea of networking into my blog. Yes, Multiplicity can be represented with physical networking (like the brain) but I think a more pertinent emblem would be a bit more virtual. I decided to use the Facebook “+1” icon as my emblem for Multiplicity.

As Calvino said, “each life is an encyclopedia,” and I believe that Facebook actually does a pretty good job of showing us that on a daily basis. The interconnectivity of humans is mind-blowing and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been surprised by a “mutual friends” page. Not only that, but with the advent of Facebook Timeline, our entire lives can be outlined on the web for everyone to see and reference. Hopefully one day I’ll get a biography better than Facebook but for now, I think it’s amazing! Facebook effectively connects us all through the past, present, and future time to come.

Multiplicity: Calvino’s Quality

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.

Quickness: Graphics

Finally! When looking for an entry that could relate to Quickness I immediately went to the chapter on Time & Motion thinking that surely, I could find something that related to time… and motion. But nothing really jumped out of the page at me. I really played around with the idea of doing something relating to musical notes but I decided against it. Then as I was flipping through, I saw the Design Project for Typographic Layers: 

Typographic Layers In everday life as in films and animations, multiple stories can unfold simultaneously. A person can talk on the phone while folding the laundry and hearing a song in the background. In films, characters often carry on a conversation while performing an action.

This typographic exercise presents three narratives taking place during a two minute period: a news story broadcast on a radio, a conversation between a married couple, and the preparation of a pot of coffee. Typography, icons, lines, and other elements are used to present the three narratives within a shared space. The end result can be obvious or poetic. Whether the final piece is an easy-to-follow transcription or a painterly depiction, it is made up of narrative elements that define distinct layers of visual channels

Let’s backtrack.

In Calvino’s memo on Quickness he tells a story from one of Boccaccio’s novellas. It’s about a man who is telling a story to a woman he is escorting. He’s trying to tell the story well but he’s doing a terrible job; he forgets events, the details and overall he has no rhythm. The mistress gets tired of his story and says “Sir, this horse of yours has too hard a trot, and I pray you to set me on my feet again.” Essentially, she was saying that his storytelling skills were terrible and she would prefer it if he would just stop trying. His story was bad because he didn’t have the quality of Quickness.

Now to the graphic pictured above.

I think that this graphic is a good representation of Calvino’s Quickness because it utilizes time in different manners. If I had to judge, I would say that the graphic in the bottom right hand corner, by Menon, is the best example of Quickness. It is obviously the most simplistic: it looks like Arial font with different colored highlighters which allows the reader to assume the sequence of events. It is the easiest to understand and the sequence of events isn’t convoluted like it is in the other examples. The only other contender would be the graphic in the top right hand corner, by Osmanof, but the lack of line breaks between the text on the right margin of the canvas makes it really difficult to understand. After reading the graphic in the bottom right hand corner, I have no desire to look for meaning in the other 3: they are examples of the horseman’s bad story telling skills.

Quickness: Calvino’s Quality

In order to explain the quality of Quickness, Calvino tells the story of Charlemagne written by Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly:

“Late in life the emperor Charlemagne fell in love with a German girl. The barons at his court were extremely worried when they saw that the sovereign, wholly taken up with his amorous passion and unmindful of his regal dignity, was neglecting the affairs of state. When. the girl suddenly died, the courtiers were greatly relieved – but not for long, because Charlemagne’s love did not die with her. The emperor had the embalmed body carried to his bedchamber, where he refused to be parted from it. The Archbishop turpin, alarmed by this macabre passion, suspected an enchantment and insisted on examining the corpse. Hidden under the girl’s dead tongue he found a ring with a precious stone set in it. As soon as the rung was in turpin’s hands, Charlemagne fell passionately in love with the archbishop and hurriedly had the girl buried. In order to escape the embarrassing situation, Turpin flung the ring into Lake Constance. Charlemagne thereupon fell in love with the lake and would not leave its shores” (Calvino, 31).

Calvino uses this story as an example because it was very well written. Many writers have attempted to re-write this same story (Paris, Petrarch, Errizzo) and they have not been up to par because they are lacking in “Quickness.” They do not have the same speed and the chain of events is not as cohesive. Quickness is the ability of a writer to control the speed of a story. As in Charlemagne’s story, one second and a thousand years can pass by with equal quickness and allure. A master of Quickness is able to make time an ally.

Additionally, quickness in writing has a rapidity and rhythm on the page ; the pronunciation can create a tempo. Calvino uses the art of poetry as an example. Read aloud, poetry changes our perspective of how language can be used. Some poems almost sound like a song when you read them out loud. When a good poem is read, you get the sense that the diction was carefully chosen. Writing with the quality of Quickness should have the same effect. Each word should be so well chosen that it is unalterable. Writing should have rapidity but not so much that the substance suffers. This is when Calvino introduces his own personal motto and emblem which coincides with Quickness:

Festina Lente (Hurry Slowly) is the motto that accompanies this emblem. It means that when working one should strive for haste, not speed. Speed sacrifices quality, haste embodies diligence. One should work and create works in which there is no sense of time passing. Quickness is defined by this motto and emblem.