In Italo Calvino’s essay “Levels of Reality,” which is in his book, The Uses of Literature, it is explained how Fiction contains different levels of reality. Calvino first used Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to describe the levels of fiction in its degrees of realism. He explained how the first level would be more real than the last; making the last level the least real to the human world. Although these levels have different degrees of realism, it is all molded and smelted like steel and become part of one story and world in which we perceive in our minds. Another way Calvino discusses the levels of reality is by using the statement, “I write.” He stresses that “I write” would be the first level or reality because it is the first dimension the reader perceives. But if you read “ I write that Homer tells that Ulysses listens to the sirens,” there are 3 levels of reality taken place because there is now 3 dimensions, worlds, or timeframes in that particular phrase. This is how we know now that levels of fiction is in our readings everywhere without us being aware of it before getting introduced to Calvino’s essay.
QUESTIONS:
1. Can levels of reality exist in non-fiction? Can the explanation be found in the essay?
2. Is it easier to find the levels of fiction in classical pieces of literature?
3. What did he mean in page 117 that a story can create a structure in persepective?
