Lightness

In his book Six Memos for the Next Millennium Italo Calvino wrote out five entire lectures to his students. The six was never completed. Calvino's first lecture speaks of the subject of "lightness." The term lightness has several definitions, but Calvino discusses the topic in a unique way. Calvino explores three features of lightness: 1)verbal texture, 2)train of thought, and 3)visual image. I would like to address Calvino's third feature of image.

According to Calvino, lightness can be best understood through the use of opposites. Towards the beginning of his lecture, Calvino recounts Ovid's Greek myth of Perseus and the Gorgon Medusa. Legend has it that anyone who looked into the face of Medusa would turn to stone. In order to kill Medusa, Perseus used his bronze shield in order to look upon her image as a reflection. Perseus succeeds in cutting off Medusa's head, and he carries it with him in a sack. By revealing the Gorgon's head to his enemies, they are turned to stone.

What does this myth have to do with lightness and visual image? Calvino is very intentional about the stories that he tells because of the images that they portray. One may interpret the Gorgon's head as "heaviness" or burdens in life. In gazing solely into the face of life's burdens, one is easily bogged down with stress and anxiety. However, one can look into the reflection of the heaviness of life, as Perseus looks into his shield, and find a lightness in life. Dwelling on life's hardships can cause even greater pain than the trials themselves, but one can find lightness in the purpose behind hardships. Trials in life often force people to question their values and reevaluate their decisions. Even though life can be heavy, using tough times as learning experiences can lighten the load.

With lightness on the brain, I am reminded of a favorite childhood story The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis. It is the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. Some of you may be familiar with the two fairly recent films The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. These are based on the second and fourth books in the series. The Horse and His Boy unlike these other stories revolves around a boy named Shasta as opposed to the four Pevensie children. Shasta is the supposed son of a poor and abusive fisherman living far south in Calormen, a land south of Narnia. Shasta discovers that the fisherman was actually found in a boat as an infant. Finding an opportunity to escape, Shasta runs away with a horse that can actually speak, for this horse is from the land of Narnia where beasts talk and think like men. Shasta and Bree, the horse, decide to make the long journey to Narnia. Along the way they run into many obstacles.

At one point in the story, Shasta is separated from Bree and two friends that they have found along the way. Shasta is to wait at the tombs outside of the city of Tashbaan for them, but the others are delayed. The boy finds himself alone at dusk amidst dark and gloomy tombs. Here is an excerpt:

"Suddenly from somewhere behind him there came a terrible sound. Shasta's heart gave a great jump and he had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming. Next moment he realized what it was: the horns of Tashbaan blowing for the closing of the gates. 'Don't be silly little coward,' said Shasta to himself. 'Why, it's only the same noise you heard this morning.' But there is a great difference between a noise heard letting you in with your friends in the morning, and a noise heard along at nightfall, shutting you out. And now that the gates were shut he knew there was no chance of the others joining him that evening."

Shasta finds heaviness all around him. He is alone and afraid, tired and hungry. His senses are heightened, and he has nowhere to run and nothing to do but sit amongst the tombs and imagine the creeping things that could be watching him. Suddenly, he feels something touch his leg and he cries out. He is relieved to find that it is only a cat. The cat stares at the boy and leads him through the tombs and out on the desert side of them. It sits upright facing Narnia and the North, "as still as if it were watching for some enemy." Shasta is able to lay down with his back to the cat and his face toward the Tombs. This cat is a great comfort to Shasta. Instead of lying awake all night, the boy is able to sleep. Even when he wakes in the middle of the night and hears shrieks from the desert, the cat remains and comforts the boy. The cat brings lightness to Shasta's dark and heavy situation.

"Faith" by Robert Kendall gives the reader a sense of lightness. The word faith implies hope. A few words are added to the page with light and airy musical notes. As the words pile up and become clutter, however, the musical becomes heavier. The contrast between the beginning of the piece and the end exemplifies Calvino's concept of lightness and heaviness. This piece may be accessed at this URL: http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/kendall__faith/index.htm.