History Literature / IfOnAWintersNightATraveler

* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. She has nothing but contempt for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to literature and her desire to read just for entertainment and escapism, but the novel suggests that for all her political awareness and progressiveness ultimately Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually the much more narrow-minded and limited one. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma, reduces books purely to their political subtexts and focusses on them to the total exclusion of anything else, and doesn't acknowledge or appreciate anything that doesn't conform exactly to her own narrow political views and prejudices.

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* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. She has nothing but contempt for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to literature and her desire to read just for entertainment and escapism, but the novel suggests that for all her political awareness and progressiveness ultimately Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually the much more narrow-minded and limited one. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma and doesn't acknowledge or appreciate anything that doesn't conform exactly to her own narrow political views and prejudices.

* NotSoDifferent: While divergent in terms of genre, each of the stories involves a man narrating the chaotic events he becomes involved in as a result of meeting a woman to whom he displays varyingly overt levels of attraction. Which, in turn, is not a million miles off from what happens to you after meeting Ludmilla...

* HappilyMarried: By the end of the book, [[spoiler:you are]].

* BerserkButton: For you, starting "If on a winter's night a traveler" and finding out that the copy you have is [[spoiler: defunct.]]

* FictionalDocument

* MindScrew

* PaintingTheMedium
* PhilosophicalNovel
* PostModernism

* SecondPersonNarration
* SeriousBusiness: Books are.
* ShowWithinAShow: ''Books within a book'' actually.
* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus exclusively on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. She has nothing but contempt for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to literature and her desire to read just for entertainment and escapism, but the novel suggests that for all her political awareness and progressiveness ultimately Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually the much more narrow-minded and limited one. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma and doesn't acknowledge or appreciate anything that doesn't conform exactly to her own narrow political views and prejudices.

* NoNameGiven: For almost all of them.

!!These are the tropes you find in Italo Calvino's ''If on a winter's night a traveler'':

* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus exclusively on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. She has nothing but contempt for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to literature and her desire to read just for entertainment and escapism, but the novel suggests that for all her political awareness and progressiveness ultimately Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually the much more narrow-minded and limited one. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma and doesn't acknowledge or appreciate anything that doesn't conform to her own political views and prejudices.

* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus exclusively on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. She has nothing but contempt for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to literature and her desire to read just for entertainment and escapism, but the novel suggests that for all her political awareness ultimately Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually the much more narrow-minded and limited one. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma and doesn't acknowledge or appreciate anything that doesn't conform to her own political views and prejudices.

* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus exclusively on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. The novel suggests that for all her political awareness and disdain for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to reading for escapism and entertainment, Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually much more narrow-minded and limited than Ludmilla. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma and doesn't acknowledge or appreciate anything that doesn't conform to her own political views and prejudices.

* StrawmanPolitical: Ludmilla's sister Lotaria is a parody of self-righteous politically-minded students and readers who just boil down works of art and literature into their political subtexts and focus exclusively on them to the exclusion of anything else. At one point she claims that if she feeds the words of a book into a computer, she can know exactly what the book's about without ever reading it just by counting how frequently certain words appear. The novel suggests that for all her political awareness and disdain for Ludmilla's more apolitical approach to reading for escapism and entertainment, Lotaria (and, by extension, people like her) is actually much more narrow-minded and limited than Ludmilla. Ludmilla is open to having her mind changed and her views challenged by what she reads, whereas Lotaria rigidly and unquestioningly adheres to her chosen dogma and doesn't acknowledge anything that doesn't conform to her own political views and prejudices.