Book 33: "The Castle of Crossed Destinies" by Italo Calvino
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 22:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeIn the uncertain light the cards describe a nocturnal landscape, the Cups are arrayed like urns, caskets, graves among the nettles, the Swords have a metallic echo like shovels or spades against the leaden lids, the Clubs are black like crooked crosses, the gold Coins glitter like will-o'-the-wisps. As soon as a cloud discloses the Moon a howling of jackals rises as they scratch furiously at the edges of the graves and fight with scorpions and tarantulas over their putrid feast.
There are two stories in this book, one taking place in a castle and the other at an inn, and in both cases the travellers spending the night there are struck dumb, and start to tell their stories to each other, using a pack of tarot cards. At the castle they use a beautiful painted tarot deck, and the stories are told one at a time, with each storyteller starting with a court card to represent him or herself, and then laying the cards down to build up the story, and intersecting with cards already laid down when they need to use the same cards. At the inn they are using a cheap tarot deck printed from wood-cuts, and everyone tries to tell their story at the same time, grabbing at cards that have already been laid down, rather than designing their story to intersect with them.
The pictures on the cards are used to show what is happening in the story, but since a card can stand for many different people, places or events depending on the context, the story is also told in the storyteller's gestures facial expressions, and in the imagination of the people watching the story unfold on the table. Sometimes the cards seem to be telling well-known stories from mythology, or from Shakespeare, but is that just what the writer is reading into the cards put down by the other travellers?
This was a re-read for me, and for some reason I enjoyed it much more this time. I found these stories and the storytelling more interesting, so perhaps I was just more in the mood for this type of book.
Reviews of Books 31 to 33 cross-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
50bookchallenge.
There are two stories in this book, one taking place in a castle and the other at an inn, and in both cases the travellers spending the night there are struck dumb, and start to tell their stories to each other, using a pack of tarot cards. At the castle they use a beautiful painted tarot deck, and the stories are told one at a time, with each storyteller starting with a court card to represent him or herself, and then laying the cards down to build up the story, and intersecting with cards already laid down when they need to use the same cards. At the inn they are using a cheap tarot deck printed from wood-cuts, and everyone tries to tell their story at the same time, grabbing at cards that have already been laid down, rather than designing their story to intersect with them.
The pictures on the cards are used to show what is happening in the story, but since a card can stand for many different people, places or events depending on the context, the story is also told in the storyteller's gestures facial expressions, and in the imagination of the people watching the story unfold on the table. Sometimes the cards seem to be telling well-known stories from mythology, or from Shakespeare, but is that just what the writer is reading into the cards put down by the other travellers?
This was a re-read for me, and for some reason I enjoyed it much more this time. I found these stories and the storytelling more interesting, so perhaps I was just more in the mood for this type of book.
Reviews of Books 31 to 33 cross-posted to
50bookchallenge.
