Italo Calvino's essay "Lightness" on the flight home - reading it in the afterglow of the first residency. He goes into a beautiful riff on the classical myth of Pegasus, how Perseus, floating on the most delicate substance of air and cloud, killed the Gorgon by viewing it in a mirror, then with tenderness preserved the head which he was able to use as a weapon under dire circumstances. There is no need here to repeat Calvino's words, but I love his injunction to not impose any idea of what these myths mean on them. Rather he implores us to pay very careful attention to the images, to allow these images to wash into our memories where they will wait to release whatever meaning/light they will as conditions arise for us. This particular myth has such striking images, and some so surprising, that the injunction feels wise.
Three authors who embody "lightness" come to mind for me: Szymborska, Doctorow, and (I know he's commercial, but) Nick Hornby. Why would I include Doctorow? It's because his prose itself is light, even when his subject matter isn't. I remember listening to "Ragtime" (I had read it years before) and marveling at never once having to rewind/repeat passages because he wrote in a prose style that just poured in.
This is more of a test post, I'll be posting more.
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