A review of Visibility

In the fourth chapter of Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the New Millennium, he looks to examine the duality of visibility: imaginative processes that "[start] with the word and [arrive] at the visual image" versus processes that "[start] with the visual image and [arrive] at the verbal expression." Frankly, my reading comprehension failed me a little on this reading. I found myself struggling to understand exactly what was being conveyed in Calvino's writing, and it took several attempts of reading and taking notes to feel that I had grasped what was being analyzed.

From my understanding, Calvino seeks to break down each process of imagination then tries to determine which process forms first, much like the chicken and the egg conundrum. He opens with excerpts from Dante's Divine Comedy describing images that begin as outward visual projections and noises cast on the ear that gradually turn inward to strictly mental representations. These mental images, which Dante believed were "divine inspiration," are just that: images. There are no words associated with them, but Dante assigns verbal expression to convey to the reader what he has imagined. This is an example of the second imaginative process mentioned earlier involving a visual image arriving at verbal expression, and this is the process that Calvino favored, at least when pertaining to "novelty, originality, and invention."

Calvino didn't dismiss the validity of word arriving at visual image, however. He goes on to discuss Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises in which Loyola uses words to paint a "vast visionary panorama." Calvino distinguishes Loyola's approach from the visual approach of Catholicism at the time as rather groundbreaking. The Church relied on sacred art to invoke "emotional stimuli" in order to further the believer's understanding of the teachings. This can be limiting to the believer, though, because they are being presented with a preconceived image that shapes how they should feel and think about the matter at hand. By verbally expressing a concept, Loyola leaves it to the reader to mentally paint the scenery and individuals involved, which affords them more liberty in their spiritual enlightenment.

If I were to pick a side, I personally believe more often than not that the visual image precedes verbal expression. I respect both lines of thinking, but I think Douglas Hofstadter explained the matter very well; he mentioned that a writer will start with a mental image and oftentimes will make multiple attempts to piece together the words that will best convey this image. Even once the words are formed, the origin of the idea is vague and hidden, much like the majority of an iceberg that hides beneath the water. You can't associate words with this ambiguity, but you can assign imagery to it on some level.