February's selection is a collection of short stores by Italo Calvino. I must admit that for a minute there, I wasn't really into it. A couple of the first stories I read were, shall I say, odd and depressing. But when I found myself thinking about a particular depressing story two days after I had read it, I knew he had done his job as a storyteller. You see, in just a couple of pages his intense character development, tone, plot and imagery will have you thinking about his stories and their outcomes for days. In this book Calvino transports you from the beautiful, innocent fantasy world to the ugly, wartime world and then back to the ordinary world of everyday schlepping, and you go eagerly because you have empathy for the characters. Whether he delights, shocks or saddens us, Calvino does a great job of showing us the many difficult, and sometimes nitty-gritty sides of love.
I chose this short story to work with because it spoke to me so loudly on so many levels. How so, you ask? Well, maybe its because I am in my 40's and surrounded by selfie taking tweens and I just don't understand this whole FB/Instagram/put all my business out there world, hard as I might try. Maybe its because I grew up in a house with so many paintings on the walls there wasn't any room for photographs. Maybe because my parents were too busy coaching our teams and holding our horses for tack changes that we (my brother and I) were hardly ever photographed at whatever we were busy doing. I've always lived in the moment, or tried to. But enough of that already. You came to see my creations. So I hope you enjoy my slightly altered pics that my very talented daughter took. I am, by admission, too chicken to pick up the camera because I know all to well where that new obsession will lead....
Want more eye candy? Well, here are my fellow participants' blogs. Please show some love and go check them out too!
Until next time...Check out this great book club!
Rachel
Wow! Some super cool elements here! I want to know more about some of them... like the little film links... how did you do that? Really gorgeous combination of colors and shapes...and those little wooden cameras!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great necklace! I also would love to know more about the camera and film components and the pendant. I think that pendant is a so perfect for the story and the feeling of taking multiple photos of the same thing and becoming a bit obsessive. Really fun to see.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad that you were able to join us! Thank you so much for participating!
ReplyDeleteIn picking the titles for the book club, I wanted to make selections that folks might not have heard of before and that were lesser known gems. I think of Calvino's short stories like that. It's a collection of gems. Each one shows the different facets of the human experience.
I really enjoyed your interpretation of the story and how you were able to put so much of yourself into the piece. I can understand about not having pictures taken as a child. When I was little, my brother left and went missing and my parents just sort of stopped taking pictures. So there's a huge gap in my childhood where there simply weren't that many pictures of me.
Anyway, I really like the collected look of your piece and how you've tied it together with little film and camera components. Nicely done! And thanks again for participating!
WOW! "Adventure of a Photographer" was one of my favorite stories and you captured it so well! I can see the story again every time I look at the focal piece. What a creative and wearable necklace with an amazing personal story to go along with the inspiration story. Thanks for joining us!
ReplyDeleteYour necklace is delightful. Love the film pieces and the cameras and your wonderful impressionistic focal piece. I am so glad you have joined us in this reading and creating adventure. I can see you are enjoying it too!!
ReplyDeleteLovely necklace! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I was so happy to read you saw me over at Patti Edmon's. :) It's always great to meet new friends.
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