Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
It was described as a quintessential postmodern novel due to its second-person narrative structure and its unconventional, non-linear progression and multiple beginnings.
It starts out by saying you are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a Winter's Night, A Traveler. Relax, concentrate, dispel every other thought.
— Episode: “Postmodernism:”
Episode: “Postmodernism:”
It was described as a quintessential postmodern novel due to its second-person narrative structure and its unconventional, non-linear progression and multiple beginnings.
It starts out by saying you are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a Winter's Night, A Traveler. Relax, concentrate, dispel every other thought.
So the author is directing you, the reader, to begin the novel that you're reading. So you're immediately the character. Like he's writing about you in this page.
And then it very quickly careens from what you would consider real. Like the book runs out on page 32 in the book. The book you're actually reading still goes on.
Episode: “Postmodernism:”
It was described as a quintessential postmodern novel due to its second-person perspective and its unconventional structure, where the story repeatedly starts over or breaks off.
It's a book by Italo Calvino called If on a Winter's Night, A Traveler is from 1979.
It's written in the second person perspective. So he talks about you. So you're the main character.
And it starts out by saying you are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a Winter's Night, A Traveler.
So the author is directing you, the reader, to begin the novel that you're reading. So you're immediately the character. Like he's writing about you in this page.
And then it very quickly careens from what you would consider real. Like the book runs out on page 32 in the book. The book you're actually reading still goes on.