Calvino, fittingly, is not unaware of these learned works, which have for him especially a value of excitation and of incitation similarly, he has delved into the “vast literature on cartomancy and the symbolic interpretation of the Tarot.” But his business is neither theory nor divination, but to tell stories, and what first of all fascinated him in the Tarot is the “narrative machine.” The “comic book” side advantageously balances out its old-fashioned side, without considering that the semioticians have recently decked out the combinations of the Tarot cards in the combined glamour of science and fashion. A truly diabolical trap, if it is true that the writer has made a deal with the devil: “is not the raw material of writing all a rising to the surface of hairy claws, cur-like scratching, goat’s goring, repressed violences that grope in the darkness?”Īnd yet it is but a game: one lines up the Tarot cards and one invents stories at random based on the illustrated sequences composed by the cards spread out on the table. The author himself admits having only published it to escape his own trap and to sleep the sleep denied to his reader. Madness stalks you in the heart of its labyrinth. The Animated Tarots of Calvino Jean-Michel Gardair Above all, I endeavoured to look at the Tarot cards with attention, like someone who does not know what they represent, and to draw out suggestions and associations, to interpret according to an imaginary iconology.” He states that: “As to the vast literature on cartomancy and the symbolic interpretation of the Tarot, even though I obviously delved into it, I do not think it had had much of an influence on my work. It should be noted that the Author’s Note which accompanied the French and Italian editions is rather different to that which appeared in the English edition: it is more extensive and, effectively, Calvino explicitly references the academic literature on the subject and alludes to the vast body of symbolic and occultist work on the Tarot. Quotations have been taken from the English translation by William Weaver, with one exception. Gardair (1942-2013) was a French Italianist and semiotician. One such example is presented here, The Animated Tarots of Calvino, by Jean-Michel Gardair. Naturally, Calvino’s meta-fictions have attracted a great deal of critical commentary from academic authors. Not only is the structure of the narrative of the book based on the interpretation of the interweaving stories told by laying out the cards of the Tarot deck, but the work itself is illustrated with the cards themselves, providing an immediate visual signifier and point of reference. “I always feel the need to alternate one type of writing with another, completely different, to begin writing again as if I had never written anything before.Of the many works of fiction which, in one way or another, incorporate the Tarot into their plot, none has done so as thoroughly, or as fundamentally, as Italo Calvino’s seminal Castle of Crossed Destinies. You just have to join in and piece the meanings together. The author presents a revealing afterword section describing his usage of the tarot. Destinies cross.īesides the cleverness and intrigue of the fiction, the stories offer those of us interested in the tarot ways to get more familiar with the cards themselves. The group uses the traditional tarot deck in the book’s first half, then a more modern deck in the latter.Įach card is a poem begging for exposition, illustrated with items that tell and have ranging connotations. As characters take their turn to present, the indicated actions and events become interwoven. Sequentially, each array of cards offers a type of free-association story.
#Italo calvino tarot series#
In this novella a series of tales are delivered by individual storytellers, each of whom reveals a certain display of tarot cards.