of any sort of consternation, but they seek a harmony which is possible all the same and which his case can only be that of the poem.
(Calvino goes a step further along this line Of thought in an attempt to define his literary work when he says that he has only one defense against the loss of form that he sees all around him: an idea of literature.)Reality was the goal to which Stevens aspired. Surrealism, it appears,did not impress him, for it invents without discovering. He pointed out that to portray a shell playing an accordion is to invent, not discover.And so it crops up once again, this fundamental thought that l seem to find in Williams and Handke, and that l also sense in the paintings of Edward Hopper: it is only between the reality of things and the imagination that the spark of the work of art is kindle'd. lf l translate this statement into architectural terms, I tell myself that the spark of the successful building can only be kindled between the reality of the things pertaining to it and the imagination.And this is no revelation to me, but the confirmation of something l continually strive for in my work, and the confirmation of a wish whose roots seem to be deep inside me.