The Authentic Choice of Cosimo in Il Barone Rampante

Transcription

1 The Authentic Choice of Cosimo in Il Barone Rampante Italo Calvino wrote that the reader must interpret the stories as he will, or else not interpret them at all and read them simply for enjoyment 1 in an introduction to I nostri antenati (Our Ancestors). I have therefore decided to interpret Il barone rampante (The Baron in the Trees) (1957) in light of Martin Heidegger s 1927 masterpiece Being and Time (Sein und Zeit) as I hope to highlight how Cosimo is an example of authentic Dasein, and in contrast, I shall be examining his father, Il Barone Arminio Piovasco di Rondò and his younger brother Biagio. Being and Time asks the question; what does it mean to be? The central task of the work is to determine the meaning of human Being (Dasein) by using the phenomenological method. It further attempts to extrapolate the characteristics of mortal Dasein, the being for whom its very Being is an issue, and ultimately seeks to approach a meaning of Being via an interpretation of the temporality of Dasein. Il barone rampante is a novel about a young boy who abandons his aristocratic life in favour of an arboreal existence, and the novel is grounded upon the concept of choice. It is narrated through the eyes of his eight-year-old brother [Biagio], and here the distortion is provided by Cosimo s ek-centricity in relation to the world 2 and Two major conflicts structure much of the action in the rest of the book: Cosimo s rejection of the old society, and the confusion within Cosimo of reason and emotion. 3 Since the element of choice is a key difference between an authentic or inauthentic existence, I believe that the application of Heideggerian phenomenology to Il barone rampante, will provide an interesting interpretation of the novel. Yet I do not seek to extrapolate a meaning for Cosimo s existence here, nor existence in general; rather, I hope to approach an understanding of how Cosimo, Biagio, and their father, can be seen to represent Heidegger s theories. Dasein is the being for whom the question of Being is important, that is, whose Being is, for it, an issue. It is rooted upon mineness or the you and I, or as Heidegger states: 1 Italo Calvino, Our Ancestors, trans. By Archibald Colquhoun (London: Vintage Books, 1998), p. ix. 2 Teresa De Lauretis, Narrative Discourse in Calvino: Praxis or Poiesis?, PMLA, 90 (1975), 416 < [accessed 25 January 2015] 3 Albert Howard Carter III, The Baron in the Trees: Fantasy as History, in Italo Calvino: Metamorphoses of Fantasy (Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1987), p

2 Dasein is an entity which is in each case I myself; its Being is in each case mine. This definition indicates an ontologically constitutive state, but it does no more than indicate it. At the same time this tells us ontically (though in a rough and ready fashion) that in each case an I not Others is this entity. 4 For Heidegger, to approach an understanding of the verb to be, we must turn to ourselves, that is, Dasein is charged with the responsibility of understanding its own Being: We are ourselves the entities to be analysed. The Being of any such entity is in each case mine. These entities, in their Being, comport themselves towards their Being. As entities with such Being, they are delivered over to their own Being. Being is that which is an issue for every such entity. 5 Dasein is also charged with assuming its own possibilities: In each case Dasein is its possibility, and it has this possibility, but not just as a property [eigenschaftlich], as something present-at-hand would. And because Dasein is in each case essentially its own possibility, it can, in its very Being, choose itself and win itself; it can also lose itself and never win itself; or only seem to do so. 6 Cosimo chooses himself, and he wins the retrieval of his authentic self-hood, nonetheless at just twelve years old, I do not believe that his discomfort and angst is due to the explicit pondering of the meaning of his Being, rather that his stubborn nature and unhappiness are intrinsically linked to the issue of his Being. As Cosimo approaches authenticity, and is emerges from das Man (the they-self), he opens himself up to angst or anxiety. This is due to authentic being-toward-death, that when Dasein re-evaluates its life after tasting the finite nature of its existence, and leaving the tranquil mood induced by the immersion into das Man, it is faced with its own individual self. This realisation that Dasein or Cosimo is not at home in the world, that he is faced with his own uncanny (Unheimlich, or not at home ), triggers anxiety, but also allows 4 Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. By John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p Heidegger, p Heidegger, p

3 him to experience Gewissensruf, the call of conscience that allows Dasein to choose and win its true, authentic, self. The very fact that, at the beginning, Biagio and his family see a stubborn and, perhaps, stroppy teenager reveals their own absorption into das Man, and how Cosimo is approaching authenticity. The difference between Cosimo and his brother is evident when Biagio notes his unawareness to the depth of Cosimo s angst: I did not realize that my brother s stubbornness hid something much deeper. 7 Before analyzing the authentic and inauthentic modes of Being in Il barone rampante, I wish to examine a few key Heideggerian terms that not only shall facilitate this study, but also demonstrate how the two books are suitably matched for analysis. The being-in-the-world of Cosimo is understood in terms of thrownness, projection, and fallenness. These three elements, the three dimensions of care, demonstrate the temporality of Dasein ; thrownness is indicative of the past, projection of the future, and fallenness of the present. Dasein s facticity is the factuality of the fact of Dasein s being where it is and The concept of facticity implies that an entity within-the-world has Being-in-the-world in such a way that it can understand itself as bound up in its destiny with the Being of those entities which it encounters within its own world. 8 The thrownness (Geworfenheit) of Dasein is the facticity of Dasein s being delivered over into the there. Therefore, Cosimo s very own existence is a manifestation of this throwness. He is indeed thrown into the aristocracy and The rhetorical function of the first chapter is to enlist our sympathy with the rebellious Cosimo, who breaks with his family and life below tree level. Primarily two devices help build this sympathy: the mediating narrator [ ] and the development of the rebellion through a series of small, carefully prepared conflicts. 9 These conflicts serve to highlight how Cosimo is in fact thrown and separate from others, and how he is at risk of fallenness. His throwness is clearly shown at the dining table: 7 Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, in Our Ancestors, trans. By Archibald Colquhoun (London: Vintage Books,1998 ), p Heidegger, p Howard Carter III, p

4 A few months before, Cosimo having reached the age of twelve and I of eight, we had been admitted to the parental board 10. And in how he must always present himself: Life at our home was a constant dress rehearsal for an appearance at court. 11 These quotes also partially demonstrate the phenomenon of fallenness into the world, which signifies absorption in Being-with-one-another, in so far as the latter is guided by idle talk, curiosity, and ambiguity. 12 These three elements, which Heidegger defines as existential characteristics, are central to the aristocratic type of existence in the novels, and indeed, the rest of the family exhibit fallenness. But, this term does not express any negative evaluation, rather it is used to signify that Dasein is proximally and for the most part alongside the world of its concern. 13 They are fallen because they have been absorbed into das Man, i.e., Dasein has fallen in with others, and fallen away from itself. It is important to be clear that das Man is not a specific group, and its lack of individuation is part of its link to inauthenticity, therefore one must note that Cosimo s refusal was not only directed against his family, but more generally toward society and the surrounding world. 14 There are two modes of Being presented by Heidegger, and just like fallenness, neither mode has a negative connotation. Instead, they suggest that whether one chooses their own lifestyle or else fulfils a pre-ordained role in their society, both are factical existences, and both are rooted in mineness, however the former involves an element of choice that is lacking in the latter. The inauthentic existence of Dasein involves living a purely factical life, that is, drawing from the world, the meaning of its Being, and its relationships with others are instrumental. But, the inauthenticity of Dasein does not signify any less Being or any lower degree of Being. Rather it is the case that even in its fullest concretion Dasein can be characterized by inauthenticity when busy, when excited, when interested, when ready for enjoyment. 15 The effects of this life 10 Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Heidegger, p Heidegger, p Franco di Carlo, Come leggere i nostri antenati (Milan: U. Mursia editore S.p.A., 1978), p Heidegger, p

5 are that Dasein is largely unaware of the instrumental use of others, and it bases its judgements upon what it think it should do or feel, thus, it is running away from its authentic self-hood. Per contra, we are able to live authentically if we realise that first, we are finite and that we will die, secondly we must taste this finitude (for example in the case of a breakup or death) and finally, having faced our finite nature, we have the moment to choose if we will live our lives differently. The authentic existence of Dasein involves the determination of the meaning of its Being from its own, existential being. The effect of which is that we, as humans, get to choose specific moments as individuals to take ownership of our lives and engage in the retrieval or our authentic self-hood. Cosimo retrieves his authentic self-hood because he sees that he is separate from others and does not belong with them: Now at table with the family, up surged the intimate grudges that are such a burden of childhood. Having our father and mother always there in front of us, using knives and forks for the chicken, keeping our backs straight and our elbows down what a strain it all was! not to mention the presence of that odious sister of ours, Battista. So began a series of scenes, spiteful exchanges, punishments, retaliations, until the day when Cosimo refused the snails and decided to separate his fate from ours. 16 Then, following a prank to release all the snails before their sister can serve them in one of her grotesque dishes, Cosimo and Biagio are severely punished. I would argue that in the eyes of a child such punishment does result in an acknowledgement of their finitude. They found the hole in the barrel, and at once realized we had made it. Our father came with the coachman s whip and seized us from bed. Then, our backs, buttocks and legs covered with violet weals, we were locked into the squalid little room used as a prison. They kept us there three days, on bread, water, lettuce, beef rinds and cold minestrone (which, luckily, we liked) Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p

6 However, following their punishment, they are tested, and are served snails. This is a key moment as it shows the difference between seizing the opportunity to change one s life, and to remain absorbed in das Man: I yielded and began to chew the wretched molluscs (a cowardice on my part which had the effect of making my brother feel moe alone than ever, so that his leaving us was also partly a protest against me for letting him down; but I was only eight years old, and then how can I compare my own strength of will, particularly as a child, to the superhuman tenacity which my brother showed throughoght his life?) 18 Biagio chooses to remain fallen ; however, as he was Cosimo s one true connection to his world, the one who prevented a total sense of separation, Cosimo feels his distance more than ever. Ultimately, he escapes into the trees in the uniform of his former life: We saw him through the windows climbing up the holm oak. He was dressed up in the most formal clothes and head-dress, as our father insisted on his appearing at the table in spite of his twelve years of age. 19 The fallen state of Biagio is indeed inauthentic, however, falling in with das Man induces a tranquil mood, which in turn alienates Dasein from itself and hides its possibilities from itself. However, the very possibility of this fallenness reveals the fact that Dasein Being is an issue for it. Cosimo determines the meaning of his existence from his authentic, existential self; but, it is through his facticity, his involvement with the world and his existential mode that he approaches this understanding of his Being, therefore his existence is co-constituted by existence and facticity: Spending his existence among the trees, Cosimo does not renounce the various experiences of life: reading books, amorous feelings, hunting, the events of war, great acts of charity, little revolutions. 20 Cosimo makes and maintains his choice to live his life differently, and how this choice is derived from his own, existential self is demonstrated when Biagio notes Cosimo s previous sense of separation from das Man: 18 Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Franco di Carlo, p

7 I have mentioned that we used to spend hours and hours on the trees, and not for utilitarian motives as most boys do, who go up only in search of fruit or birds nests, but for the pleasure of getting over difficult parts of the trunks and forks, reaching as high as we could, and finding a good perch on which to pause and look down at the world below, to call and joke at those passing by. 21 Cosimo becomes, and His original ascent into the trees is a hasty, impulsive act, but as the book progresses he gives much thought to the implications. 22 This process of becoming is indicative of Being, and the evolution of the authentic self. This process can be observed when, as Cosimo s anger at his family begins to fade, his flight into the trees evolves into a protest against society, becoming moreover a means of affirming his moral, social, and philosophical commitment to the betterment of society. 23 He needs to test his abilities and himself in an attempt to derive a sense of Being, and therefore he draws the meaning of his Being from himself and from what he can and cannot do: In those days Cosimo often challenged men on the ground to compete in aiming or skill, partly to try out his own capacities and discover just what he could manage to do up there on the treetops. 24 However, by following, his own self, and remaining true to his choice, he pays a price for retrieval; he abandons normal societal interaction as Albert Howard Carter III observes: Cosimo banishes himself from the edenic gardens of aristocratic Ombrosa with its easy life of rules and conventions; he chooses the curse of work in trying to construct a small, personally conceived and executed world that moves toward, but does not reach, the status of a utopia. 25 Similarly, when Cosimo finds Gian dei Brughi and the fruit thieves, and sees their similar existence he wishes to join them, however, his efforts to join this subgroup of society fail (as did his boasts), and he must create his own society [ ] He rejects the society below and seeks to stretch his 21 Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Howard Carter III, p Beno Weiss, Our Ancestors: A Viscount, A Baron and a Knight, in Understanding Italo Calvino (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993), p Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Howard Carter III, p

8 own powers of action 26. Then, following the death of his father, Cosimo becomes the new Baron of Rondò, but travels to Olivabassa. There he meets another group with a similarly arboreal existence, a group of Spaniards who rebelled against King Carlo III and were forbidden from touching soil. For Calvino, this episode represented the contrast between those one finds in the trees for unavoidable reasons, who climb down when these reasons cease to be; and the rampante, who remains in the trees for personal reasons, even when there are no external motives to stay. 27 But, an authentic existence, and the departure from fallenness, does not have to result in a hermitic lifestyle and Although he now lives on a higher plane albeit in physical isolation and spiritual loneliness Cosimo never leaves society, and, indeed, even more than before, he fully takes an active part in it by assisting the people of Ombrosa. 28 In fact, for Constance Markey the existential dialectic focuses sharply on the crucial choice in Calvino between the solitary life and the life of the homme engagé. 29 If one examines the father however, he is a perfect example of one who lives inauthentically. Il Barone Arminio Piovasco di Rondò allows himself to be absorbed into the pseudo-society and everyday familiarity that is linked to his title and he derives the meaning of his Being from the world and because of this fallenness he experiences a loss of self: Our father the Baron was a bore, it s true, though not a bad man: a bore because his life was dominated by conflicting ideas, as often happens in periods of transition. The movement of the times makes some people feel a need to move themselves, but in the opposite direction, away from the road; so, with things stirring all round him, our father had set his heart on regaining the lapsed title of Duke of Ombrosa, and thought of nothing but genealogies and successions and family rivalries and alliances with grandees near and far Howard Carter III, p Calvino, Italo, Nota 1960, in I nostri antenati (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., 2011), p Weiss, p Constance Markey, Calvino and the Existential Dilemma: The Paradox of Choice, Italica, 60 (1983), p. 55 < [accessed 20 January 2016] 30 Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, pp

9 He is the perfect example of inauthentic Dasein running away from its authentic self-hood, and the above passage also demonstrates the factical nature of his existence as well as how humanity in general, when faced with such stress, will turn away. The legacy of the family is the most important thing to the father: We had already, as a matter of fact, been warned against sliding down the marble banisters, not from fear of our breaking a leg or an arm, for that our parents never worried about, which was I think why we never broke anything; but in case in our gathering momentum we knocked over the busts of ancestors placed by our father on the banisters at the turn of every flight of stairs. 31 In comparison to his father running away and his absorption into das Man, Cosimo turns away from the purported importance of lineage: A fig for all your ancestors, Father! a preannouncement of his mission as a rebel. 32 When comparing the lives of both Cosimo and his father, it is easy to focus on just the differences, but the similarities between inauthentic and authentic Dasein are just as important and With innate intelligence and inventiveness, [Cosimo] succeeds in creating for himself a life not too dissimilar from the one he would have led had he remained on the ground. 33 While his life can be similar to the lives of the Verfallen, as it is derived from himself, it remains authentic. From another point of view however, I believe that Albert Howard Carter III makes an interesting point about Viola, that: Throughout their encounter, she pressures him into assuming a wider and wider role for himself in the trees. Like his family, she is a strong influence on his career in the trees, but whereas Cosimo rejected them out of desperation and dislike, he stays in the trees now, to a large measure, to fulfil standards of conduct Viola has helped him establish. 34 Cosimo s little brother Biagio is the narrator, and he speaks of Cosimo in ever-flattering terms and is intent on presenting him as productive member of society, even if he is separate from it. One 31 Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, p Weiss, p Howard Carter III, p

10 must ask the question; does he maintain this lifestyle for the sake of Viola? And if so, does this render it inauthentic? Let us look at Biagio, who perhaps can be seen as Dasein who, while conscious of his brothers authenticity, is inauthentic. Biagio acts as an intermediary, participating in both realms. The father is at first hostile, later patiently acceptant, if not enthusiastic. 35 Perhaps then, it would be more appropriate to view Biagio as Dasein who when faced with the choice to choose his own life, chose to not assume his possibilities: Biagio is passive, conservative, loyal to social norms. On the other hand, he is sympathetic to many of Cosimo s aims and, in varying degrees, amused and excited by Cosimo s adventures, which constitute alternatives to orthodox living. Especially in the first pages, Biagio often tells us how he looked up (literally and metaphorically) to his older brother, admired him, and wished to follow him even when he was unable. Four years younger and much less daring, Biagio is more personally involved than a traditional Horatio figure, and his opinions about his brother change over the course of the book, from the admiration of youth, the puzzlement and temporary rejection of conservative middle age (chapter 20), to a final respect and nostalgia at the end. 36 Beno Weiss echoes my hypothesis, that Biagio is somewhere between the two modes of Being and thus, in the end we surmise further that Biagio is not merely the narrator of Cosimo s life, but that he is the intellectual alter ego who understands and identifies with his brother s life-style but nonetheless remains somewhat detached from active involvement. 37 However, one must certainly not fall into the trap of assuming this is Calvino speaking: For all of Bagnio s good will, or perhaps largely because of it, we cannot have perfect faith in his narration. Nor for that matter can we safely assume that it mirrors the author s true state of mind. Biagio s viewpoint as a character himself in the novel is a fiction, a fiction too glossed over by eighteenth-century hope and by his trust in the situation to give a reliable account of things Howard Carter III, p Howard Carter III, pp Weiss, p Markey, p

11 In conclusion, while a Heideggerian analysis of a text such as Il barone rampante, may seem excessive, I believe that many of the qualities of Dasein that Heidegger delineates in Being and Time are to be found in Calvino s novel. At its simplest, the novel is the story of a young boy who runs away from an oppressive environment and finds a purpose somewhere between the earth and the sky. At a deeper level, my interpretation is that it presents the division between an authentic and inauthentic Dasein, and how ultimately it is the choices of the characters that are central to their existences. Il Barone Arminio Piovasco di Rondò is fully absorbed into das Man and the tranquil mood this induces allows him to enjoy his inauthentic fallenness, focusing his concerns and anxieties into maintaining his title in a period of transition. On the other hand, Biagio exhibits the qualities of Dasein who has been able to offer itself the possibility of assuming its authentic self following a consciousness of the finite nature of their existence; but he chooses to run away from this authentic self and focuses his attention on his brother s existence. Finally, Cosimo exhibits the discomfort and angst that accompanies mortal Dasein s approach to authenticity. Unlike Biagio, Cosimo, following his strict punishment, accepts how he is separate from others, and has never truly submitted to das Man. Following his previous feelings of distance, he returns to the trees and resolves to never touch terra firma again. In doing so, he retrieves his authentic self-hood from his own Being, develops, and becomes by testing himself and assuming the responsibility of producing one s own possibilities, and The Baron in the Trees finishes as it began: with a revolutionary, nonconformist act by the protagonist Franco di Carlo, p

12 BIBLIOGRAPHY Benussi, Cristina, Introduzione a Calvino (Bari: Editori Laterza, 1989) Calvino, Italo, I nostri antenati (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., 2011) Calvino, Italo, Our Ancestors, trans. By Archibald Colquhoun (London: Vintage Books, 1998) Di Carlo, Franco, Come leggere i nostri antenati di Italo Calvino (Milan: U. Mursia editore S.p.A., 1978) De Lauretis, Teresa, Narrative Discourse in Calvino: Praxis or Poiesis?, PMLA, 90 (1975), < [accessed 25 January 2015] Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, trans. By John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (New York: HarperCollins, 2008) Howard Carter, Albert, III, Italo Calvino: Metamorphoses of Fantasy (Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1987) Markey, Constance, Calvino and the Existential Dilemma: The Paradox of Choice, Italica, 60 (1983), < [accessed 20 January 2016] Pescio Bottino, Germana, Calvino, (Florence: La nuova Italia, 1973) Weiss, Beno, Understanding Italo Calvino (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993) 12