World Human Cultural Heritage: Temple of Heaven

Author: Yang Zhen duo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Italo Calvino is one of the most influential contemporary Italian writers in the world. In his four decades of creative practice, he continuously explored and innovated, striving to express the spirit of modern society and modern people, as well as his insights and beliefs about life, through the most appropriate methods and forms. His works are diverse in style, each reaching an extremely high level, reflecting the era while also transcending it. In 1985, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but tragically passed away suddenly that same year, missing out on the award. However, his influence in the international literary world continued to grow, and his works have increasingly garnered attention. (The Collected Works of Calvino in five volumes, details can be found in the volume If on a winter's night a traveler!)
Detailed Introduction: Our ancestor Calvino compiled three novels about jazz into a single volume titled Our Ancestors. The third novel is titled The Non-existent Knight. The narrator is a Catholic nun. This story discusses the jazz of the Middle Ages from the perspective of the nun. A jazz named Achilov does not actually exist. He is merely a set of silver armor for a warrior, yet he has a voice and also participates in the atrocities of robbery, murder, rape, and burning committed by the warriors of that time. Strangely, a noble girl falls in love with this non-existent jazz. The story becomes increasingly complex. In the end, Achilov admits that he does not exist and hands over his armor. Without armor, there is no jazz. The nun who tells the story finally reveals her identity—she is the girl who fell in love with the non-existent jazz. As the author lets his imagination soar freely, the story becomes both engaging and witty, serving as a satire on human vanity and the psychologically distorted nature of love. The Baron in the Shape of a Half-Moon is Calvino's second novel. It is a fable that satirizes the "modern man," and Calvino's unique and special writing style has attracted the attention of the literary world! The narrator is an orphan whose uncle is a nobleman. During the Austrian-Turkish War in 1716, the uncle was split head to toe by a cannonball on the battlefield. A battlefield doctor saved the half-baron and sent him home. This strange creature, with only one eye, half a nose, half a mouth, one arm, and one leg, had a particular fondness for killing and burning. Not only did he burn half of his own fortress, but he also saw everything he encountered as something to be split in half. Here is the description from the orphan's perspective: My uncle lay prostrate on the rocks, stroking a half-crawling octopus that was twitching. "If I could split everything in half like this, it would be wonderful. We could all be free from the foolish constraints of the concept of wholeness. I once was a whole person, and everything seemed natural and chaotic to me, as dull as the air. I thought I had seen everything clearly, but in reality, I had only seen the shell. If you happen to become a half-person, nephew, for your own sake, I hope you become a half-person. You will then understand things that ordinary intelligence cannot grasp with a whole mind. You will lose half of yourself and half of the world, but the remaining half will be a thousand times deeper and more precious." However, Calvino's unique and special writing style has attracted the attention of the literary world.