/lit/ - Literature

I can't understand some cities in picrel. Am i stupid? Is there some kind of guide to help me get it?

I'm feeling absolutely filtered by this piece of shit book and it's really hreatbreaking. I fancy myself a kind of smart guy but I have no idea what this book is trying to say, the ideas feel too complex for my stupid peabrain to understand. All the cities feel like random descriptions except for a few where the metaphor is rather obvious. The passages where the conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan is being described in vague ways and you can't even tell if they are actually talking or just communicating telepathically also make zero sense. What are the themes? What's the metaphor? What's the message that Calvino is trying to deliver?
I'm feeling absolutely buck-broken right now. Should I not even try to start reading more experimental literature and stick to pre-digested classical lit slop?

>>21623787
INFP

Shallow descriptions, hinting at philosophical concepts but only in a superficial manner. I guess it was trying to be comfy rather than intellectual? Certainly seemed like it was aiming for a degree of intellectualism, even a quiet criticism of imperialism as Kublai stumbles to understand his dying empire made of such unique people as if that's relevant to an Emperor. Structuralist by emphasizing interpersonal relations as a defining characteristic, the cultures are portrayed as transient, subjective, and almost interchangeable--it's close to being a mockery of cultures. The interludes only drag it closer to its resemblance to a discussion between two weed smokers. Almost floats, disconnected from any tradition as if it has the qualities of rooting a novel literary tradition and rejecting the Western one. Calvino fails to transmit a coherent message or put together a meaningful structure that can deliver more than fleeting impressions, so it can reach no higher than airport music meant to comfort busy people. Overall, a waste of time, and its popularity is nothing more than an accident of the times. Should've just read Marco Polo instead.

What the fuck is this pretentious garbage?

>>17423513
Novels that are better than The Man Without Qualities
>picrel
>If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
>Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
>Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
>In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust
As for novels from that century on the level of The Man Without Qualities:
>Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
>The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
>Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
>The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch
>The Moon and the Bonfire by Cesare Pavese
>In Search of Lost Time by by Marcel Proust
>Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo

How am I supposed to read this?

10/10

>>13911939
I’ve got it, anon. Here you go

What am I in for?

always a comfy author

>>10053459

enjoy marco, calvin and charlie

>>9582104

>>9479501

Is this guy supposed to be good? Reading pic related. I could do better.