Both letters and memos are genres that bring Calvino’s emphases on “lightness” to issues whose great weight might otherwise make their discussion too heavy for many to confront. Letters allow thoughts that, even when as urgent as some of the ones to be described, contain those ineffable aspects of lightness and connection that provide the basis of a true dialogue between author and reader—all accompanied by an impetus for new thoughts in you that will go in different directions from my own.
