A Plunge Into Calvino Podcast
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aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A Plunge Into Calvino Podcast
@aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
260 followers 9 following 500 posts
The account of the A Plunge Into Calvino podcast, dedicated to Italo Calvino.

The views expressed here are personal, and not that of my employer.
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aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
No, it doesn't have the introduction, sadly.
The cover of The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino.
May 31, 2025 at 8:06 AM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Friends fear he has bought another illustrated edition of Invisible Cities.

This is the new 50th Anniversay Edition from Mariner Classics, with an Introduction by Anthony Doerr and illustrations by Karina Puente Frantzen.
The cover of the new 50th Anniversay Edition of Invisible Cities with an introduction by Anthony Doerr and illustrations by Karina Puente Frantzen. The inside cover of the new 50th Anniversay Edition of Invisible Cities showing an illustration of a city linked by wires against the night's sky by Karina Puente Frantzen. A two-page spread illustration from the new 50th Anniversay Edition of Invisible Cities showing the city of Fedora, represented by a number of small black and white line drawings by Karina Puente Frantzen.
March 31, 2025 at 5:12 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
This just arrived - a present from my oldest friend. I am genuinely touched. Fascinated to find out what difference it will make. And isn't it beautiful?
A microphone for recording podcasts.
February 15, 2025 at 7:30 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
If anyone in or around Manchester (UK) wants to get their hands on this gorgeous edition of Our Ancestors I can point you to a charity shop that has you covered.
A picture of Italo Calvino's Our Ancestors - 1990's edition with his name on the top half of the cover and a pink-tinted picture of a suit of armour on the bottom half.
January 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Numbers In The Dark by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of a lit-up fair ride at night, with a red neon sign in a mix of English and Chinese lettering.
November 22, 2024 at 10:34 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Marcovaldo or The Seasons In The City by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of a pile of leaves, some brown, some white, making a mosaic.
November 22, 2024 at 10:32 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of a street painting showing large ghostly figures in turquoise, red, yellow, green and dark blue.
November 22, 2024 at 10:31 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of a clock on the outside wall of a stone building - the clock face is blue with yellow circles containing each number, metal rings around the clock face with planets attached in orbit around it.
November 22, 2024 at 10:29 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Adam, One Afternoon by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of trees in a park with the Autumn light making the leaves glow.
November 22, 2024 at 10:27 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Mr Palomar by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of a small piece of greenery hanging in the air in a park.
November 22, 2024 at 10:25 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
I made two for Invisible Cities.
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of a street in Manchester city centre, a spiral car park on the right, shoo fronts and a banner reading 'JEWELLERS' on the left. In the centre there is a tower of glass windows that appears translucent against the bright sky. A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of the metal frame of a building that is under construction.
November 22, 2024 at 10:24 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
This evening I used the Penguin Classics cover maker to make some Calvino covers using my own photographs and I thought I'd share the results.
A mock-up cover for a fake Penguin Classics edition of If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino. The cover photograph is of Liverpool by the waterside, with the sun setting putting everything into silhouette and casting long shadows.
November 22, 2024 at 10:20 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Took delivery of this today. If you've listened to episode 12 you'll know that this is a short story anthology in which each story is inspired by Calvino's essay 'Cybernetics and Ghosts', edited by that episode's guest Michael Salu. Available through Bandcamp.
The front cover of Cybernetics, Or Ghosts? - Stories From Myth To A.I. Edited by Michael Salu.
November 1, 2024 at 9:31 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Thank-you.
A screenshot from Spotify analytics showing that the A Plunge Into Calvino podcast has now been streamed 500 times.
October 19, 2024 at 11:33 AM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Another book added to my collection of critical works on Calvino.
The cover of Modern Critical Views: Italo Calvino. Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. The contents page of the book, including essays by Gore Vidal and Seamus Heaney.
August 19, 2024 at 6:11 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
June's #CalvinoBookClub title is the club's first foray into Calvino's non-fiction - the collection of autobiographical essays The Road to San Giovanni. As ever please read along and share your thoughts with the hashtag.
The cover of The Road To San Giovanni by Italo Calvino. The top half has the title and author name in silver over a purple background, and the bottom half is a photograph of an old Italian building shaded green.
June 1, 2024 at 7:29 AM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
One note of potential interest - although Into The War was not published in English until 2011, one of its stories was first published in that language many years earlier. The January 1955 number of The London Magazine carried A Trip To Mentone, translated by Stuart Hood.
#CalvinoBookClub
The cover of The London Magazine, January 1955, Volume 2 No 1
May 31, 2024 at 6:30 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Nursing a bad back but hopefully I'll finish the Into The War #CalvinoBookClub tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a picture of my Calvino collection, taken in response to a post on Twitter.
A picture of my collection of Italo Calvino books. There are 34 books in the picture.
May 30, 2024 at 8:02 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Due to unexpected events I will be finishing April's #CalvinoBookClub over the first few days of May. For those who wish to join in, we will be sticking with Calvino's realist period for May as we go Into The War - a collection of three stories set in WW2 Italy.
The cover of Into The War by Italo Calvino.
April 30, 2024 at 8:57 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Currently reading.
Photograph of title page of Under the Radiant Sun and the Crescent Moon: Italo Calvino's Storytelling by Angela M Jeannet, published by University of Toronto Press.
April 23, 2024 at 9:12 AM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
As Amerigo makes his way to the hospital he stumbles across one of my favourite images in all of Calvino - simple but incredibly suggestive of meaning - the previous election posters from different parties, one on top of the other, their slogans visible through the cheap paper.
#CalvinoBookClub
A paragraph from The Watcher by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver. It describes election posters on a wall, from different parties in different years, one over the other so that their slogans can be seen through the cheap paper.
April 20, 2024 at 8:56 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
April's #CalvinoBookClub title will be...The Watcher (1963), from The Watcher & Other Stories. For some reason this novella does not seem to have been released in the UK. This US collection also includes Smog and The Argentine Ant.

The translation is by William Weaver.
The cover of The Watcher & Other Stories by Italo Calvino. It is mostly white with a painting in the top right corner of a man sitting on a chair in front if a wall.
April 1, 2024 at 6:09 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
March 2024's Calvino Book Club title was The Cloven Viscount, a novella that is the first story in the 'Our Ancestors' collection. I first read this in the late 90s, and was maybe the 5th or 6th Calvino I read.
The cover of Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino.
March 29, 2024 at 3:33 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
401 plays for this podcast.

Thank-you.
A screenshot of Spotify Analytics showing that the A Plunge Into Calvino podcast has been played 401 times.
February 10, 2024 at 1:57 PM
aplungeintocalvino.bsky.social
Then in 1993 Ballard was interviewed for Albedo 1 by Pat Quigley who mentions Calvino as an example of the kind of writers who fit under Ballard's term 'imaginative fiction'. Ballard's answer is worth quoting in full.

www.jgballard.ca/media/1993_a...
Screenshot from an interview with JG Ballard by Pat Quigley for Albedo 1.
January 28, 2024 at 1:53 PM