tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151589473709505648.post5165207243431963189..comments2024-03-28T07:52:07.647-04:00Comments on venezia blog: Versions of Venice, and Calvino's "Cities & Memory"Steven Varni, aka Sig. Nonlosohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10066672605318740533noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151589473709505648.post-49806274472014011372016-01-07T08:37:14.981-05:002016-01-07T08:37:14.981-05:00True, Andrew, but in spite of what Calvino suggest...True, Andrew, but in spite of what Calvino suggests in the little tale above and the wisdom of your own position, I still find myself thinking in terms of "better" and "worse." But I suppose that once we leave the individual behind--and leave behind what mattered to us personally in our own lives--then the whole question of what counts as progress gets very complicated. I still can't even figure out, to give just one Venetian example, whether it's a good or bad sign that, according to an older Venetian friend, Venetians no longer have any interest in the very early hours of, say, the Rialto fish sellers, many of whose assistants were born abroad (as no young Venetians will do the work). Steven Varni, aka Sig. Nonlosohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10066672605318740533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151589473709505648.post-28949124002823827442016-01-04T15:02:17.597-05:002016-01-04T15:02:17.597-05:00I have just returned from a visit to the village w...I have just returned from a visit to the village where I was born and spent an idyllic childhood. The village shop has gone as has the watermill. The farm houses are converted into apartments and the farmyards into housing estates. I suffered a severe bout of melancholia wandering around but then realised it was only my past and no-one else's that I was missing. The village as it is will one day be someone's past memory.Andrew Hallnoreply@blogger.com