Lightness

One of the main points that Calvino makes when he talks about the importance of lightness in literature is that lightness involves precision and determination. There is no room for being vague when focusing on lightness. The language used in literature that has the quality of lightness seems to be weightless until the meaning actually seems to become weightless as well. Most readers have experienced literature that seems extremely heavy, which can make it harder to understand and enjoy the material. When the language used in a text is lighter the reader can focus more on the message than on interpreting the overlying language.

The image that Calvino used in the text to describe lightness was that one should try to be light like a bird, but not like a feather. When you think about this concept it becomes easier to understand what Calvino is trying to convey. A feather has no way to control what it does, but a bird is light enough to fly and defy gravity, but it can also determine its own path. I have selected an image of a bird soaring through the sky to represent lightness. I think that the image shows the importance of precision and focus, as well as showing how thought is involved. The bird is not merely floating through the air, but is controlling its movements. I also thought that the sky in the background helped to demonstrate the concept of lightness, because the bird is soaring through the air instead of sitting on a branch. The bird is floating through the air as well as going in a specific direction, which is what I felt that Calvino was encouraging when he talked about lightness.

The same concept can be applied to literature. I think that the area of literature that uses lightness the most is poetry. There are many poets that use light language to evoke a light happy feeling in the reader. I think that it is much easier to do this in poetry than it is in a longer work. Many poems not only read in a way that seems light, but they also appear more sparse and direct than other works. This adds to the overall feeling of lightness in poetry. There are certainly many poems that appear very heavy in nature, but I think that there are more that apply to the principle of lightness than those that rely on heaviness.