The novels that attract me most are those that create an illusion of transparency around a knot of human relationships as obscure, cruel, and perverse as possible.
Italo CalvinoRead
Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In oppressive regimes, the written word is both revered and controlled, highlighting its power and danger.
Italo Calvino's quote reflects the paradox of police states that often place immense value on written texts, as they can be powerful tools for both propaganda and manipulation. In such societies, the written word is not only a vehicle for communication but also a means of exerting control, as authorities seek to regulate, censor, or promote narratives that serve their interests, thus revealing a complex relationship between literacy and power.
Themes
Written WordPolice StatePowerControlCensorship
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on censorship, one may cite this quote to illustrate how oppressive regimes value control over expression.
More from Italo Calvino
All quotes →Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.
Italo CalvinoRead
...and every Wednesday the perfumed young lady slips me a hundred-crown note to leave her alone with the convict. And by Thursday the hundred crowns are already gone in so much beer. And when the visiting hour is over, the young lady comes out with the stink of jail in her elegant clothes; and the prisoner goes back to his cell with the lady's perfume in his jailbird's suit. And I'm left with the smell of beer. Life is nothing but trading smells.
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The struggle of literature is in fact a struggle to escape from the confines of language; it stretches out from the utmost limits of what can be said; what stirs literature is the call and attraction of what is not in the dictionary.
Italo CalvinoRead
Fantasy is like jam. . . . You have to spread it on a solid piece of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing . . . out of which you can’t make anything.
Italo CalvinoRead
Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. "There is the blueprint," they say.
Italo CalvinoRead
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