Crystal And Flame

At the opening on the Norton Lecture, Calvino remarked:" I do believe in the future of literature, because I know that something can only be offered by literature with the special way of itself." In his speech, Calvino commended the five literature qualities and styles he had always been enjoying, which were 'lightness', 'quickness', 'exactitude', 'visibility' and 'multiplicity' as his ideals. He put his literature ideal into practice through continuously reading and writing all his life. Calvino never attempted to repeat himself in his pieces, if there was one, there must be the one in which he tried to keep a balance between the fantasy and the reality as well as between the literary and political writing. This article tries to make a systematic research in his fictions and the qualities within them by taking five ideals as a thread and comprehending which Calvino used in his works.Calvino hadn't arranged the five ideals in a certain sequence while I did in writing the article according to which they had appeared more obviously in the works of a certain period, so as to make it clear the feature of Calvino's fictions in the certain period. And we should make the sense that it doesn't mean the certain ideal only appear in works of the certain period, we can find them in all his works.In the chapter 1, the topic is about Calvino's opinion on literature and politics, and on how he takes a position to enter the fictions. In the chapter 2, it concerns that how the imagination evoke the images based on the quest of visibility. The chapter 3 is about exactitude, which includes the structure, language and images, ki chapter 4, we come across how the speed control affect the narrative skills. As to the last chapter, the main point is the knowable function and possibility of literature, which have already implied in the multiplicity.Although Calvino constantly changed the direction of his writings and kept on explore the new area of fictions, the ideals of five never had been changed. In the glory light of them, the works of Calvino takes on a perpetual look. On one aspect, they shine like the crystal, symbolizing the exquisite structure and complex meaning of his works; on the other, they burn like flame, symbolizing the infinite imagination and the passion with which Calvino had put on the realities.In the year 1985, the death of the great writer stopped his adventure in fiction with a rest. And the literature legacy, which he presented us, will still be carried on in this century and the next, until the thoughts of human fade out in the end of time.