The aspect of Quickness that has stuck with me most is it’s relation to narrative time. Often Calvino’s concepts require a good deal of indirect logic and application to be able to see them in the context of day-to-day literature, but I found this concept to be as applicable as it was fascinating.
“Time takes no time in a story,” he says at one point. Indeed, the author of any piece (of fiction especially) has the power of controlling time. Granted, the author can actually control everything in his or her story, but is the control over time that is arguably the most important. It affects pacing, which affects mood and tone; it creates suspense; it allows the author to establish the world he or she wants the story to exist in.
There is another aspect of Quickness that Calvino speaks of, which is actually quite related to controlling time: controlling details. A story told with quickness does not feature details that don’t matter. It tells just enough, and nothing more. I’d say a bad book would be one that has no firm hold on time, letting days and years drag on, being weighted down by details that distract from the story. Thus, a good book is a “quick” book.
I would love to find a clipart to perfectly express what I mean, or be able to create the image myself, but neither of these have proved possible yet, so I’ll need to describe the imagery I see in this concept:
Your brain is a bookshelf. It’s filled with books, which are filled with the knowledge you’ve accumulated. Technically, space is not really limited, however careful organization and efficiency are valued. Therefore, when you add a new book, you want to make sure it’s worthy of the space it fills. If your bookshelf is full of books that are too big or contain unimportant information, it will take you longer to retrieve what you need.
So seek “quick” books to build your library. They take up less space without sacrificing their knowledge. They are orderly, without meandering paths of distraction.