Exactitude by Calvino

In the third memo of Calvino’s five, he describes the quality of exactitude. He explains it in having three main points: 1. A well-defined, well calculated plan for the work, 2. An evocation of clear, incisive, memorable visual images, 3. A language as precise as possible both in choice of words and in expression of the subtleties of thought and imagination. In the literal and most obvious aspect, exactitude is being as exact and concise as possible. When we write, we able to erase, delete, and rewrite in order to make a more perfect work.A work of literature can be created so that we are able to visualize the smallest details by means of using language effectively. Calvino argues that vagueness in words leads to “a loss of cognition and immediacy, an automatism that tends to level out all expression into the most generic”. He goes on to say, that even writing that appears to be vague is, in itself, a form of exactitude. He argues this point by using the vague and indefinite poems of Giacomo Leopardi. Although vague, exactitude is achieved by an enormous amount of attention that went into achieving the vagueness.

To sum up, exactitude can head in two directions:

1. in the reduction of secondary events to abstract patterns according to which one can carry out operations and domestic theorems,
2. the effort made by words to present the tangible aspect of things as tangible as possible.

This is from Setting Sail.

https://marianeris.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/calvinos-exactitude/