I'am now 37% of the way through Marcel Proust's massive shaggy dog of a novel, In Search of Lost Time and I took a break for a couple of days to read a much shorter novel, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. At only 162 pages it would barely make a chapter for Proust. He, Proust, has been accused of writing a novel with no structure and that is certainly the feeling one gets. He seems to wander around with no plan except whatever digression comes to him. The Calvino on the other hand is all about structure. Wikipedia describes the novel as having a "rigorous mathematical structure" and provides a table to show how it works. Here is how the Wikipedia article describes the structure of the novel:
The matrix of eleven column themes and fifty-five subchapters (ten rows in chapters 1 and 9, five in all others) shows some interesting properties. Each column has five entries, rows only one, so there are fifty-five cities in all. The matrix of cities has a central element (Baucis). The pattern of cities is symmetric with respect to inversion about that center. Equivalently, it is symmetric against 180 degree rotations about Baucis. Inner chapters (2-8 inclusive) have diagonal cascades of five cities (e.g. Maurila through Euphemia in chapter 2). These five-city cascades are displaced by one theme column to the right as one proceeds to the next chapter. In order that the cascade sequence terminate (the book of cities is not infinite!) Calvino, in chapter 9, truncates the diagonal cascades in steps: Laudomia through Raissa is a cascade of four cities, followed by cascades of three, two, and one, necessitating ten cities in the final chapter. The same pattern is used in reverse in chapter 1 as the diagonal cascade of cities is born. This strict adherence to a mathematical pattern is characteristic of the Oulipo literary group to which Calvino belonged.
That sounds a lot like a discussion of form in Stockhausen! Have a look at this article for an example.
Proust reminds me more of a symphony by Allan Petterssohn: it just goes on and on and on, exploring several themes from every possible angle, but in a kind of formless way.
Here is a clip of the piece Plus-Minus by Stockhausen:
And here is the Symphony No. 7 by Allan Pettersson:
The Oulipian philosophy is a fascinating one. Rather than limiting the potential for ideas, it helps to encourage them by imposing constraints. Mr Palomar is an another short (also indexed) book by Calvino, which I found amusing.
ReplyDeleteI've read Calvino's tarot card novel and will be looking for more. Yes, constraints are an interesting strategy, one that composers often choose.
ReplyDeleteLife is what happens to you while you are making other plans.
ReplyDeleteSo if you are doing "life" like Proust or Andy Warhol filming people going in and out of an office building well you are taking a break from making other plans.
I don't think it matters much what plan you have as long as you have one and stick to it.