The Marginalian · People & society

Italo Calvino on Reading and Sex

Italo Calvino, in his 1979 novel 'If on a winter's night a traveler,' draws a parallel between the acts of reading and making love, highlighting their shared immersive qualities and the unique temporal and spatial experiences they create.

Calvino suggests that both reading and lovemaking involve a deep immersion, requiring a balance of surrender and sovereignty. He likens the process to establishing a shared space and theme, where individuals explore their connection through accumulated desire and mutual exploration.

He describes how, in these intimate moments, individuals are not just separate 'tu's' but form a 'voi,' a second-person plural, yet remain distinct entities.

Calvino then likens the act of reading to being intimately examined, where the reader systematically 'reads' the other person through various sensory and intellectual channels.

This 'reading' involves not just the physical body but also the complex elements that manifest in visible events, encompassing habits, memory, and cultural codes.

However, Calvino notes a crucial difference: while lovers' reading of each other is non-linear, skipping, repeating, and ramifying, the reading of written pages is generally linear, though it also moves towards a climax.

Despite these differences, the most significant resemblance lies in how both experiences open up unique dimensions of time and space, distinct from measurable reality.

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