Italo Calvino’s text, Mr. Palomar, was poignant in the strangest of ways. Calvino’s titular character is characterized as a “nervous man who lives in a frenzied and congested world.” He deals with the so-called frenzy and congestion by greatly limiting the world that he encounters. Although the world passes by him as normal, Palomar opts for a more refined existence. According to the narrator, this more refined existence is generally characterized by a limiting of socialization and sensation. In short, Palomar seems comfortable with the idea of just existing with himself.

His relationship with the idea of exactitude is also quite peculiar. He craves a profound existence and searches for it by scouring everything around him for meaning. He seems to have this crushing need to see the world exactly as it is. Truth is simply not enough for Palomar. As Kathleen said in her own response, he desires exactitude in “behavior and understanding.” She notes that this makes him a rather dull, tiring man. These are points that I absolutely agree with. I feel that his analysis is, at times, misplaced. He ignores his own shortcomings and his own mistakes in his conquest for truth while mocking others’ follies.

Despite his claimed commitment to exactitude, I’m not so sure that his current way of life is compatible with that notion. He goes over all he sees with a fine-toothed comb and loses the exactitude of reality in the process. Palomar focuses so much on the movement of the waves and, as much as he desires to see an end to their crashing, he’s ignoring everything that is going on outside of his own head. The waves are not the sole focal point of reality for the majority of people, it seems, so Palomar’s view of the world seems very narrow. Although he seems like he kind of person who would argue that his reality is, in fact, truthful because it is his reality, he forgoes a more functional truth while pursuing a more ultimate exactitude of life.