Infinite Limits

Light Experience

          Though I would not categorize the novel, Dolly City, as a light book, it can be compared to the idea that lightness uses the feeling of the language itself. Calvino believes that everything acquires consistency and stability and that everything that moves swiftly we become unaware of its consistency and aware of only its effect. This is true when looking closer into the main character, Dolly.  Since the book moves to quickly from one scene to another, we become unaware of how consistent it is, and we become aware of the effect the actual stories and crazy things Dolly does.

          For example, in one scene Dolly harms other babies, and it seems shocking how guiltless she feels, “I didn’t know how to tell her that a few dozen babies had kicked the bucket. But she took it in her stride and said dryly that there was no need for me to feel any guilt whatsoever” (Castel-Bloom 55). Here there is what Calvino discusses as a lightening of language. There is a lightening of language whereby meaning is conveyed through a verbal texture that seems weightless because of how nonchalant Dolly feels about harming innocent babies. Though what she has done is not light, the way that it is discussed seems so insubstantial to her that once again we can look into the mind of this protagonist who is very insane. While looking into the feeling of the language use itself, one can really come to understand the type of feeling Castel-Bloom is trying to convey through the eyes of her character Dolly.