Multiplicity

Multiplicity is the fifth concept that Calvino explores in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Although the sixth topic is consistency, multiplicity is the last lecture recorded. Within this lecture, Calvino relates multiplicity to the encyclopedia. He writes that the subject of his lecture is "the contemporary novel as an encyclopedia, as a method of knowledge, and above all as a network of connections between the events, the people, and the things of this world" (105). Not only does Calvino compare the contemporary novel to an encyclopedia, but he calls it an "open" encyclopedia, "which etymologically implies an attempt to exhaust knowledge of the world by enclosing it in a circle" (116). In saying that novels of the twentieth century are an open encyclopedia, Calvino is saying that there is a method knowledge where there are so many different connections that come together through ideas and experiences of people around the world. There is no way that man can know everything, but in seeking knowledge, man discovers connections to even more that he does not and cannot know.

This idea is even more applicable today with continual advances in technology. The internet, which is much more advanced today than 1985 when Six Memos was published, has added to Calvino's concept of multiplicity. People network all the time through e-mail, personal websites, and blogs. The spider's web of network grows thicker and thicker, but there is much more room for growth. Skype, already several years old, allows people to see each other face-to-face through a computer screen and communicate around the world.

Calvino relates novels to an encyclopedia, but why stop there? Technology as well allows people from all over the world hear of experiences and ideas that are foreign to them. Those experiences and ideas would remain foreign to them were it not for literature in print form as well as electronic form. Novels and technology make the world a much smaller place.

The Horse and His Boy addresses multiplicity. The boy Shasta is raised in the south of Calormen, yet he desires to escape to the North, to the land of Narnia. In order to complete this journey, Shasta (along with his three new companions) must pass through the city of Tashbaan. Instead of passing through the populated city quietly and unnoticed, Shasta is discovered and mistaken for the runaway Prince Corin, the Prince of Archenland in the North. He is separated from his friends and taken to the palace where he is taken care of as well as lovingly scolded. After eating a feast that was set before him, Shasta falls asleep. He is awakened by a crash, and this is what follows:

"He jumped up off the sofa, staring. He saw at once from the mere look of the room - the lights and shadows all looked different - that he must have slept for several hours. He saw also what had made the crash: a costly porcelain vase which had been standing on the windowsill lay on the floor broken into about thirty pieces. What he did notice was tow hands gripping the windowsill from outside. They gripped harder and harder (getting white at the knuckles_ and then up came head and a pair of shoulders. A moment later there was a boy of Shasta's own age sitting stride the sill with one leg handing down inside the room.

"Shasta had never seen his own face in a looking glass. Even if he had, he might not have realized that the other boy was (at ordinary times) almost exactly like himself. At the moment this boy was not particularly like anyone for he had the finest black eye you ever saw, and a tooth missing, and his clothes (which must have been splendid ones when he put them on) were torn and dirty, and there was both blood and mud on his face." (77-78)

The boy immediately introduces himself to Shasta as Prince Corin. The prince also remarks about the boys' similar physical appearances. Shasta explains to him that he has been mistaken for Corin. Instead of trying to remedy the mistake, Corin tries to convince Shasta to play along longer and to "get some fun out of this being mistaken for one another" (79). Shasta refuses and leaves the palace after Corin gives him directions.

These two boys seem to be multiples of one another. Except for Corin's temporarily rough appearance, the boys are identical. Through their meeting in the palace, they are also connected. Shasta is from the South, Corin from the North. Shasta desires to escape to the North, while Corin is enjoying his stay in Tashbaan in the South. These two boys are not only duplicates of one another, but they are networking with one another, which is how Calvino refers to multiplicity. I don't want to spoil the book for those that have not read it, but there is definitely aspects of multiplicity in Lewis' novel.

Multiplicity can be shown in Electronic Literature as well. Reiner Strasser and Alan Sondheim created "Tao" which can be viewed at: http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/strasser_sondheim__tao/tao.html. This is an example of multiplicity by the dual images that are presented throughout the work. These paralleling images exemplify multiplicity in that they are similar in appearance, yet they are different in color. Technology works in the same way. There are many modes of technology, yet they are similar in advancing knowledge and communication. E-Lit can increase knowledge and communication by enabling students to express themselves through images as well as words. Electronic Literature is redefining the way that literature is perceived.