How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Flannery has been suffering a crisis. He can't write a line; the numerous novels he has begun and for which he has been paid advances by publishers all over the world, involving banks and financing on an international level, these novels in which the brands of liquor to be drunk by the characters, the tourist spots to be visited, the haute-couture creations […] have already been determined by contract through specialized advertising agencies, all remain unfinished, at the mercy of this spiritual crisis, unexplained and unforeseen. (11.24)
Since Calvino deeply explores the pleasure of reading and, in some instances, writing, the theme of innocence applies nicely to the "crisis" facing Silas Flannery. He's a man who writes books for people's pleasure, but the increasing commodification of his work is starting to weigh on him, taking away from the actual literary value of his craft. The reader can sense the extent to which the corporate world weighs on Flannery through the exhaustive list of products and places Flannery must draw upon as he writes. In a mental sense, the man is being crushed under a mountain of shiny new products and exotic destinations.
Quote #8
Ludmilla.... Isn't it like her to insist that now one can ask of the novel only to stir a depth of buried anguish, as the final condition of truth which will save it from being an assembly-line product, a destiny it can no longer escape? (11.39)
For the first time, you assign some sort of name to what Ludmilla, the innocent reader, asks of the text. The term "buried anguish" seems to offer a "final condition of truth," though it's very difficult to figure out what Calvino means by this statement. Is literature then supposed to uncover something buried, a form of pain and suffering that wells up in us when we read a book with open hearts? You could interpret this passage as basically saying, "the truth hurts, so deal with it." After all, it's pretty tough to make it through If on a winter's night a traveler without a little pain, right?
Quote #9
"How many years has it been since I could allow myself some disinterested reading? How many years has it been since I could abandon myself to a book written by another, with no relation to what I must write myself? I turn and see the desk waiting for me, the typewriter with a sheet of paper rolled into it, the chapter to begin. Since I have become a slave laborer of writing, the pleasure of reading has finished for me" (15.2)
Silas Flannery expresses a desire similar to Ludmilla's and Mr. Cavedagna's, which is for a sort of disinterested or innocent reading. This has been ruined in some ways for Flannery, who cannot read without thinking of his own obligation to write for a living. People who love certain hobbies often find that this love fades when their hobbies turn into jobs, and Flannery is certainly feeling this sort of effect. The obligation to write enslaves him, especially when he has to keep in mind what brand of wine his characters must drink, what type of shoes they need to wear, etc.