Even though I do not think I fully understood Calvino’s concept of lightness, the Perseus and Medusa myth helped make it a little clearer. I love mythology and believe it is a very useful teaching method for today. Obviously since I was able to get the idea that even though things look and feel heavy, lightness can come from them. At first, I thought lightness meant bringing light into dark places. It took me awhile to get my head around the fact that the lightness Calvino was referring to was the opposite of heaviness. But back to the mythology, Calvino’s use of the tale of Perseus gently laying down Medusa’s head on a bed of leaves and then the leaves turning to trinkets for the nymphs is a perfect way to portray lightness. I would probably have to say this example; especially the nymphs did it for me. My image of lightness would be a nymph. Whenever I hear the word I get a picture of light, airy figures springing through the forest. If this is not an image of total lightness and a picture without any heaviness of the world, then I do not know what is.
Calvino also wants to show that lightness has the ability to make itself out of heaviness. This seems self explanatory enough but I think there is probably more to it than just meets the eye. I take this to mean that you can always find the good in something, make lemonade out of lemons. A piece of literature that reminds me of the idea of lightness is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. At first I thought this was the perfect example but then I had to sit back and think about how exactly LoTR really shows lightness. I look at it this way, Middle Earth is living with an increasing heaviness, and eventually things get to the breaking point. However, with the destruction of one item the heaviness is removed and lightness is completely restored. I see this as finding good out of the bad. Even though the hobbits have to go on a trek that they may not survive they are doing it to rid the world of evil. As I mentioned before I am not sure if I fully understand the meaning of lightness in the way that Calvino wants us to but this is how I am able to take it.