Il castello dei destini incrociati

The Castle of Crossed Destinies is a kind of stories that a fortuneteller could tell… Actually tarot cards recount the tales… I decided to break what I believed a drowsiness of tongues after the trials of the journey, and I was about to burst forth with a loud exclamation such as “Health to all!” or Leggi tutto

Ah, to be drunk with a pack of tarot cards. Or was it speed? Not sure. It could be PCP. But whatever the drug, this collection of short stories surrounding the obvious use of tarot cards to write stories or re-write common tales or to lay down the structure of alchemy or to just have a plain ole goo Leggi tutto

I am a huge Calvino fan. His stories are full of mathematical marvels and ingenious ideas. The Castle of Crossed Destinies has both of these characteristics and is a short but marvelous read.

Calvino sa stupire. In questo libro che raccoglie e intreccia storie apparentemente tra loro scollegate, ogni tessera, ogni tarocco trova la sua giusta collocazione. Racconta tutto e il suo contrario, a seconda delle carte che ha a sé vicine, a seconda del personaggio a cui si riferisce.

People sit around in pubs and get drunk and bandy ridiculous ideas about - hey, what if you wrote a novel but you couldn't use one letter of the alphabet! Wow, great idea. Hey what about a bunch of characters who can only communicate by means of tarot cards? Whoah, that's cool. Hey - what about some Leggi tutto