Summary:
Chapter 3
Returning to the frame story, the narrator describes how the slow process of cutting apart pages as you read affects the reading experience. Suddenly, the reader cuts through a page and finds two blank pages. He finds that for the rest of the book there is a pattern of two printed pages followed by two blank pages. Furthermore, when the reader tries to pick up reading at the next printed page, the characters and setting are different. Like the last book, something has gone wrong during the printing process, and the reader is left without a way to continue the story he was just getting wrapped up in. He begins to doubt that the story he was reading about Gritzvi, the boy from Kudgiwa, is actually a Polish novel by name of Outside the town of Malbork, as the cover says. The reader looks up Pëtkwo in an atlas and finds that it is not in Poland but rather in the formerly independent state of Cimmeria.
The reader decides excitedly to call the Other Reader from the bookshop. He recalls that her name is Ludmilla. The person who picks up when the reader calls the number Ludmilla gave is Ludmilla's sister Lotaria. Lotaria asks a series of lofty academic questions about the book the reader is calling to discuss, then criticizes the way Ludmilla reads without "clarif[ying] the problems" (44). Lotaria tells the reader that the number Ludmilla gave at the bookshop was, in fact, Lotaria's; Ludmilla often gives out her sister's number to keep strangers at a distance. The reader is disappointed to hear this, but then Ludmilla picks up the phone. She says that her copy of the book has the same problem that the reader's has. The reader asks whether Ludmilla likes the book, and she responds that she likes it but that "I wish the things I read weren't all present, so solid you can touch them" (46). The reader tells Ludmilla what he found out about the book being Cimmerian and asks to see her in person to discuss further. She suggests that they meet with a professor of Cimmerian literature at the nearby university.
The reader arrives at the university to meet Ludmilla and the professor, named Professor Uzzi-Tuzii. The reader recounts how Ludmilla rejected his proposals to meet alone, even if only to walk to the professor's office together. The reader gets lost trying to find the Department of Bothno-Ugaric Languages, where the professor's office is said to be located. A mysterious young man named Irnerio, who seems to know Ludmilla well, says that Ludmilla often hides from her sister in Professor Uzzi-Tuzii's office. Irnerio says that he doesn't read books, and that he has even taught himself how not to read. He brings the reader to the professor's office and then leaves abruptly.
Professor Uzzi-Tuzii is suspicious of the reader but allows him into the office. Professor Uzzi-Tuzii laments how cramped his office is due to Cimmerian being largely overlooked. Few students study the language even though it is "a modern language and a dead language at the same time" (51). As the reader engages him in conversation, Professor Uzzi-Tuzii becomes more upset, saying the entire department should be abolished. Finally, the reader asks whether the professor can figure out the real author and title of the story he was reading about Gritzvi and Ponko. The professor brightens at this and says that it is called Leaning from the steep slope, written by the Cimmerian poet Ukko Ahti. He tells the reader that it has never been translated, so he will attempt to translate it aloud to the reader. From the first sentence, the reader can tell that the story contains the same character names, but it is not the same story.
Leaning from the steep slope
The narrator of Leaning from the steep slope is a paranoid man staying at a hotel in Pëtkwo. Every day he goes out for a walk and sees a man named Mr. Kauderer recording the information from meteorological devices at an observatory. On Monday, while the narrator is out for a walk, he goes by a fortress and sees a prisoner sticking his hand out through a grille. The narrator first says this was not a signal to him, but then goes on to interpret it as a sign, saying, "It was like a sign coming from the stone: the stone wanted to inform me that our substance was common" (55). Continuing his walk, the narrator sees a group of empty wicker chairs on the beach and feels a sense of vertigo. When he returns to the spot half an hour later, a woman named Miss Zwida is sitting in one of the chairs sketching a seashell. The narrator does not talk to the woman, but goes to ask the desk clerk of the hotel for her name. The narrator thinks over his reasons for not wanting to start up a conversation with Miss Zwida. Perhaps seashells, but he isn't sure of what opinion to take on seashells when the topic inevitably comes up. He thinks that her style of sketching implies a worldview wherein perfection is paramount, which troubles him, and he thinks of mentioning that his health isn't very good. The narrator says he does sometimes converse with Mr. Kauderer, and he describes the man in great detail. He notes that Mr. Kauderer asked him earlier that day to take over the recording of meteorological information for a few days. The narrator feels forced into the position, but resolves to do it.
On Tuesday the narrator speaks to Miss Zwida because he knows that the position at the meteorological observatory gives him a reason to smoothly exit the conversation if necessary. Miss Zwida is drawing a sea urchin when the narrator approaches; she says she is drawing it because sea urchins have been recurring in her dreams. The narrator asks to see her again the next day, and Miss Zwida replies that she has an engagement the next day but will return the day after. When the narrator is checking the meteorological instruments in the observatory, two men dressed in black approach and ask questions about Mr. Kauderer. The narrator says that he doesn't know and asks who they are, but they refuse to give him information.
On Wednesday the narrator leaves flowers for Miss Zwida at her hotel, then wanders around outside looking for her. He sees that it is visiting day at the fortress where the prisoners are held. The narrator sees Miss Zwida in the line of women and children waiting to enter the fortress, and he sees the two men in black observing the situation as well. On Wednesday evening, the narrator writes in his diary; it becomes clear that it is his diary that we are reading, explaining why the story is broken up by day. He thinks about whether anyone will ever read what he is writing and whether they will understand his words and expressions due to the changes in language that occur over time.
On Thursday the narrator sees Miss Zwida again. Though he doesn't specifically ask, she tells him that she has special permission to enter the prison on visiting day to sketch the prisoners and their relatives. The narrator says that he would draw inanimate objects rather than people if he could draw, and Miss Zwida agrees, saying she would most like to draw a ship hook called a grapnel. She asks the narrator to acquire one, specifically one with a long rope attached, for her so that she can draw it. On Thursday evening the narrator recounts how he went to a tavern full of fishermen and laborers and hears one man brag to another that Miss Zwida has been bribing him to leave her alone with a certain prisoner. It is implied that Miss Zwida and the prisoner are romantically involved.
On Friday the narrator asks a fisherman about purchasing a grapnel. The fisherman asks suspiciously why the narrator needs it, and instead of giving up Miss Zwida, the narrator tells the fisherman that it is his own business. The fisherman tells the narrator to go to a chandler (a seller of ship equipment), but when the narrator goes to the shop, he is also turned down. The shopkeeper tells the narrator that people have used grapnels to help prisoners escape from the fortress before. The narrator goes off empty-handed.
On Saturday the narrator goes out at night because Mr. Kauderer has sent him a mysterious note asking to meet at the cemetery. The gravedigger lets the narrator in, and the narrator soon sees Mr. Kauderer riding his bike among the graves. Mr. Kauderer scolds the narrator for having gotten involved in an escape attempt, telling him "We are opposed to individual escapes. You have to know how to wait" (66). The narrator thinks that when Mr. Kauderer says "we" he is referring to the dead and that this means the dead do not want the narrator among them yet. Mr. Kauderer tells him that because of the narrator's actions he must stay away for longer, and he warns the narrator that he will be summoned to talk to the police chief soon. He tells the narrator that he does not need to keep reading the meteorological devices, which greatly distresses the narrator.
On Sunday, the narrator goes to the meteorological observatory and watches the weather for a long time. Suddenly, he sees an escaped prisoner hiding in the observatory. The prisoner asks the narrator to inform someone staying at the Hotel of the Sea Lily, the hotel where Miss Zwida is staying. The narrator feels that "in the perfect order of the universe a breach had opened" (67).
Chapter 4
The reader notes how different it is to listen to someone read aloud rather than to read to oneself, especially when the person has been translating as they go, as Professor Uzzi-Tuzii has been doing for Leaning from the steep slope. At first Professor Uzzi-Tuzii's reading had been halting, full of pauses and untranslatable words, but as the story had gone on Professor Uzzi-Tuzii had become swept up in the plot and translated quickly and fluidly. The reader was also swept up in the story so much that he only notices now that Ludmilla is sitting in the room. The professor suddenly closes the book and announces that the author didn't write anymore because he committed suicide. The professor speaks further about the story's place in the history of Cimmerian literature as he disappears deep into the bookcases in the back of his office. The narrator and Ludmilla stop listening to the professor and grab one another; the narrator thinks excitedly about the "wordless language of living bodies" (71) but does not seem to take action to kiss Ludmilla.
Suddenly, the narrator, Ludmilla, and the professor are seated facing one another, calling into question whether the narrator and Ludmilla's embrace took place in the narrator's mind. Ludmilla and the professor debate the nature of books, and Ludmilla again redefines the kind of book she likes to read, saying, "The book I would like to read now is a novel in which you sense the story arriving like still-vague thunder, the historical story along with the individual's story" (72).
Lotaria, Ludmilla's sister, enters the room and patronizingly tells her sister, "I see you're making progress!" (73). She invites Ludmilla and the narrator to a seminar on the book they were hoping to find, asserting that they should not have read Leaning from the steep slope but rather a book called Without fear of wind or vertigo. This novel was written not in Cimmerian but in Cimbrian. Professor Uzzi-Tuzii says that this book was "a fake...disseminated by the Cimbrian nationalists during the anti-Cimmerian propaganda campaign at the end of the First World War" (73). A group of young girls and an older man, evidently the professor and other members of Lotaria's seminar, gather behind Lotaria. Professor Uzzi-Tuzii recognizes the man as Professor Galligani of the Department of Erulo-Altaic Languages, and they begin to argue heatedly about Cimbrian and Cimmerian political history. The narrator and Ludmilla decide to attend the seminar.
In the classroom, Lotaria takes out a manuscript and thanks the professor for providing them with it. The professor gives historical background on the author, Vorts Vilgandi, who supposedly wrote under the pseudonym Ukko Ahti. The professor asserts that the author's works in Cimbric are better and more important than his works in Cimmerian, but that these works were concealed by the Cimmerians. Before Lotaria begins to read from the manuscript, assignments are given out for particular students to look for specific things in the text such as "the reflections of the production methods...the sublimation of repression...the metalanguages of the body" (75). Again, as soon as Lotaria begins reading the story, both the reader and Ludmilla realize they are hearing a completely different story than any of the ones they've previously begun.
Without fear of wind or vertigo
Without fear of wind or vertigo takes place in a seemingly European town with a heavy military presence. The narrator, who seems to be another adult male, is walking with his friends Valerian and Irina.
The narrator recounts meeting Irina for the first time on "the day the front collapsed" (80) while a mob was trying to cross the Iron Bridge. Irina almost fell down because of suffering from vertigo, and the narrator carried her across. After the narrator put her down, she walked away from him without saying thank you, and he followed her, asking about her spells of vertigo. The narrator revealed to her that he was part of the military and introduced himself as Alex Zinnober. She said that she was a fashion designer. They discussed whether they had changed over the course of the revolution, and then they became separated in the street.
Later, Alex goes to visit his friend Valerian, who works for the Heavy Industry Commission. He finds Valerian cleaning a revolver at his desk. A woman comes out from behind a silk screen, and Alex recognizes that it is Irina. When Valerian asks about how they know each other, Alex says that they met in a dream, but Irina says, "No. Each has a different dream" (86). As they talk philosophically about vertigo and the void, Irina picks up Valerian's gun, puts a bullet inside, and points it at her eye. Alex tells her not to joke around; Irina replies, "Why not...Women can't, but you men can? The real revolution will be when women carry arms" (87), and she points the gun at Alex. Valerian does not intervene with Irina pointing the gun at Alex, and the moment is only broken by another employee entering the room. Irina is hidden behind the door when it opens. Valerian speaks to the man as if nothing is out of the ordinary and then deal with his work tasks. After this day, the three become inseparable friends.
Alex, Irina, and Valerian begin all having sex together. The narrator vividly describes the encounters. While he is so intimately connected to the other two, he has a secret: he must "discover the identity of the spy who has infiltrated the Revolutionary Committee and who is about to deliver the city into the hands of the Whites" (88). Irina instructs Valerian to perform oral sex on her while Alex watches. When Irina's pleasure causes her to lose focus on Alex, he goes to Valerian's folded clothes and searches his pockets and wallet. Alex finds a government document with his own name and a death sentence for treason written on it.
Analysis:
In If on a winter's night a traveler, Calvino uses characters' opinions and habits regarding books to hint at aspects of their personalities. Throughout the novel, Ludmilla presents ever-shifting views on the kind of books she likes. When the reader first meets Ludmilla at the bookstore in Chapter 2 she asserts, "I prefer novels...that bring me immediately into a world where everything is precise, concrete, specific" (30). Then, in Chapter 3, Ludmilla's fickle and whimsical character is revealed. She says of the story "Outside the town of Malbork": "I wish the things I read weren't all present, so solid you can touch them; I would like to feel a presence around them, something else, you don't quite know what" (46). She does not seem to notice or care that this reflection seems to directly contradict her opinion just a chapter earlier. This flightiness reveals how hard it is to understand and satisfy Ludmilla, something that will become important to the reader as his attraction to her grows.
The scenes in Professor Uzzi-Tuzii's office demonstrate the difficulty of translation, one of the central themes of If on a winter's night a traveler. Calvino himself was a translator, so he knew firsthand how a writer must struggle between allowing a reader to immerse in the plot of a story and providing adequate explanation and nuance. Calvino writes that the professor was "going back over every sentence to iron out the syntactical creases, manipulating the phrases until they were not completely rumpled, smoothing them, clipping them, stopping at every word to illustrate its idiomatic uses and its commutations..." (68). However, at some point, Professor Uzzi-Tuzii finds a rhythm that allows the reader to follow the plot of the story without focusing on the fact that it is being translated. To translate effectively, a translator must be satisfied with the reader getting the best idea of the author's meaning and style while still immersing themselves the story, and a reader must acknowledge that something will be lost between what the author intended and what they understand.
In Chapters 3 and 4, Calvino humorously parodies academia through the characters of Professor Uzzi-Tuzii and Lotaria, Ludmilla's sister. Professor Uzzi-Tuzii represents the older academic's disconnect from reality. He himself states that his department should be abolished because it is "a dead department of a dead literature in a dead language" (52), and yet when provoked he gets into an emotional argument about a bygone political conflict. His views on literature are more similar to the reader and Ludmilla; he seems to enjoy reading and translating for its own sake, and while he provides ample context to his translation, he does not attempt to analyze or explicate the text. In contrast, Lotaria represents contemporary students and new academics at the time of Calvino's writing. Lotaria, her professor, and her classmates have certain interpretations prepared to analyze the text, and do not care about reading an entire text before making claims. The scene at the beginning of Chapter 5 when Lotaria's class begins to discuss the story "Without fear of wind or vertigo" portrays academics as prioritizing analysis and criticism over actual reading and enjoyment of literature.
At this point in the book, the themes of falsehood and falsification are foreshadowed. The reader knows something is wrong with the books he has received from the bookshop, but he has not yet learned anything about the problems in the publishing industry caused in large part by Ermes Marana. However, Calvino causes the reader to become cautious and suspicious by skillfully mixing falsehood and fiction with reality in the frame story. For example, the terms Cimmerian and Cimbrian are real terms, so they might sound familiar to a reader. However, they do not refer to the cultures and languages of two warring countries: Cimmerian refers to a people who are believed to have lived around 1000 BCE, and Cimbrian describes a set of Germanic languages spoken in northeastern Italy. Since reality in the frame story is only slightly different than the true reality of the 20th century, particularly with regard to geopolitics, a reader must be on high alert to pick fact from fiction. A reader is then primed to reckon with Ermes Marana's further falsification of the frame story through his meddling in the publishing industry.
Scholar Carl Malmgren calls If on a winter's night a traveler a "Romance of the Reader" both textually and metatextually. The textual romance is drawn out in this section of the book. The reader tries to romantically pursue Ludmilla, and he becomes even more emotionally involved upon meeting Irnerio and Professor Uzzi-Tuzii, males who seem to have prior experience with Ludmilla. However, Malmgren argues that the more important romantic aspect of the novel is the metatextual romance. The scholar writes that by using the second person, Calvino creates a relationship with the reader. Malmgren cites a passage in Chapter 1 in which Calvino seems to compare preparing to read a new book to sexual foreplay, writing "this reading around it before reading inside it, is a part of the pleasure in a new book, but like all preliminary pleasures, it has its optimal duration if you want it to serve as a thrust toward the more substantial pleasure of the consummation of the act, namely the reading of the book" (8-9). Since Calvino makes clear the parallel between reading and sex, his own literary choices can be seen in a sense as sexual advances.
