How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Oh, you can imagine the rivalry at the university between departments, the two competing chairs, two professors who can't stand the sight of each other, imagine Uzzi-Tuzii admitting that the masterpiece of his language has to be read in the language of his colleague…" (9.60)
You're probably familiar with this whole idea after reading about the fight between Uzzi-Tuzii and Galligani at the university. But what is significant about these comments is that Mr. Cavedagna is the guy speaking them. Cavedagna is a man who truly resents the "education" that he's been given by working in a publishing house. He yearns to go back to the days of his childhood, when he could read with a completely open sense of wonder.
In this scene, you could almost say that Calvino is speaking to us through Cavedagna, insisting that academic readers like Uzzi-Tuzii and Galligani have been corrupted by their involvement with the university, which has taught them to analyze books at the expense of appreciating them, and to wage stupid turf wars instead of celebrating the beauty of literature. Amen.
Quote #8
"I see that my work serves her perfectly to demonstrate her theories, and this is certainly a positive fact—for the novels or for the theories, I do not know which. From her very detailed talk, I got the idea of a piece of work being seriously pursued, but my books seen through her eyes prove unrecognizable to me. I am sure this Lotaria (that is her name) has read them conscientiously, but I believe she has read them only to find in them what she was already convinced of before reading them" (15.83).
Well, this is about as much sympathy for Lotaria as you're going to get out of Calvino. In this passage, Silas Flannery admits that Lotaria is a very serious and conscientious reader. Her problem, though, is that she's had her approach to reading deformed by her education, which teaches her to use books as evidence to prove things she already thinks. After all, isn't this what English teachers do? They ask you to develop a thesis statement and then to find evidence in a book that supports that statement. Calvino insists over and over again that you can't enjoy literature by reading this way. Instead, you have to keep your mind open to all the different directions that a book wants to lead you. So don't feel bad if you're not the biggest fan of reading books for English class. Calvino is with you on that one.
Quote #9
She retorted, a bit irritated: "Why? Would you want me to read in your books only what you're convinced of?"
I answered her: "That isn't it. I expect readers to read in my books something I didn't know, but I can expect it only from those who expect to read something they didn't know." (15.85)
In his meeting with Lotaria, Silas Flannery also manages to articulate Calvino's idea of how a reader should keep an open mind toward books. The problem with Lotaria is not that she's educated, but that her education has taught her to see the world in strictly black and white terms. So when Flannery suggests that maybe she shouldn't be so pushy about the ideas she brings to texts, Lotaria automatically assumes that he wants her to be a passive, idiotic reader who just accepts everything an author says.
Flannery tries to explain that this isn't what he wants. What he wants is for his readers to keep an open mind and learn things from a book that neither they nor the author had thought of before. But Lotaria just can't wrap her head around this idea, and she insists again that Flannery must want her to be an "escapist and regressive" reader (15.87). Calvino is trying to show us that there is a third way to go about reading, a way that doesn't give final authority to either the reader or the author.