The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino

We've finished the first three tales in Italo Calvino's fantastical book The Castle of Crossed Destinies. In the book a group of travelers, inexplicably struck dumb, try to communicate through tarot cards and gestures. I have read many books in the past by authors that are intentionally vague, or that require the reader to "read between the lines." But this book is unique in that it is made up almost entirely of assumptions made by the narrator, both about what each storyteller "must have been trying to say," and about what the other travelers at the castle were thinking. The narrator often gives more than one interpretation for each segment (card) of a tale, and many of his assumptions are far-fetched, even impossible (at the end of one tale, he concludes that the teller must have been hacked to pieces, eventhough the two are sitting across the table from one another, both reasonably healthy).

I have, to date, spent approximately one-third of my life living in cultures other than my own (the percentage is even higher if you include the five years I spent in eastern Washington). I have spent many hours in situations similar to the one described here by Calvino. I have had long 'conversations' with people with whom I do not share a common language. Living abroad, I've spent many hours trying to explain 'American culture' to people who, quite often, don't have a clue, and then had to return to my homeland and try to explain to my fellow Americans a culture that, to them, is mysterious at best.

Over the years I've found that language is often worthless, and logic overrated, in working with special needs kids, their parents and (especially) school administrators, even just trying to understand the current political situation. Assumptions are made daily in traffic, on the bus, reading a blog... How much of what we're trying to say, what we think we're communicating, is really getting across?

Camelot Project and Arthurian Poets

One of my absolute favorite websites is Camelot Project. Dedicated to Arthurian literature and art, it contains many e-texts of Arthurian literature, especially medieval texts and poetry from the Victorian era. There are also links to TEAMS Medieval Texts and Robin Hood lays. Because they are e-texts, I am able to download the medieval texts, render them into modern English spelling and read share them with my kids.

Many of the poems have been anthologized in an excellent series entitled "Arthurian Poets." Featured poets include Matthew Arnold and William Morris (together in a single volume), Charles Williams, John Masefield, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Edwin Arlington Robinson.

The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino

The book I will read next, a Christmas present from my sister, is a special order and should be here within two or three days. It's a translation into English of an epic poem by an Indian writer during the colonial era. British educated, he was inspired by Virgil, Spenser and especially Milton to present a well-known myth of India in Miltonesque form. Should be fascinating.

EKL and I have chosen to read next a book by a late-20th century Italian author, Italo Calvino. Written in the late 60s, it's about a group of travelers who spend the night at an inn that was once a castle and sit down to dinner, only to find they have all inexplicably been struck dumb. Their only way of communicating is through tarot cards, and they take turns trying to tell the story of their lives and/or the journey they're on while the others try to decipher the meaning. I think it's the author's take on (or response to) the Canterbury Tales, eventhough no words are spoken.

Tasso, Ariosto, Calvino

I have recently finished Torquato Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered" (Gerusalemme Liberata), and am preparing an in-depth review of it, but not for this blog. The book I am currently reading, "Orlando Furioso", is also by an Italian writer,Ariosto. The book EL and I will read next is also by an Italian writer, Italo Calvino. Not an addiction, just coincidence. I will probably put my current book aside, in fact, once my special order comes in at Barnes and Noble. Our Christmas present from my sister, et al, allows me to buy a rare book that will almost certainly never show up at Half Price Books. The book I'm currently reading is over 1500 pages long, so I don't mind setting it aside for awhile. It has almost no continuity, so picking it up again later will be easy.

EL and I read the 12th century Arthurian romance "Perceval" daily, and will probably finish before school starts next week. R.K.L and I are reading two chapters a day of "A Cricket in Times Square" and we are also on course to finish by 1/3.

Randai on KBCS-FM

I appeared as a guest on KBCS-FM, the radio station of Bellevue Community College, on a show called 'The Old Country.' The show was about randai, a martial arts-based dance drama form of the Minangkabau people of Western Sumatra, Indonesia, and featured hard-to-come-by recordings from Indonesian radio, CDs of Sumatran flute-and-vocal music from Germany, field recordings of Dr. Kirstin Pauka, and music from our 2000 performance at the University of Hawaii.