Italo Calvino's dazzling book, Mr. Palomar, offers a portrait of postmodern ways of seeing. Its hero, Mr. Palomar – named after a famous telescope – spends his time conducting experiments in viewing and contemplating the world around him. In a chapter entitled “The Contemplation of the Stars,” Palomar ventures out to look at the heavens “in order to detach himself from the earth.” In this endeavor, Palomar deliberately follows the example of the ancient Greeks who, he believes, achieved knowledge and tranquillity from this exercise. He goes to the darkness of a nearby beach and, after spending half an hour perusing his astronomical charts, settles down to study the stars.

This activity, however, turns out to be quite complicated: “to decipher a chart in the darkness he must also bring along a flashlight. The frequent checking of sky against chart requires him to turn the light on and off, and in the passages from light to darkness he remains almost blinded and has to readjust his vision every time” (43).