Rarely are there any in Valdo, by Italo Calvino

The character "Markovaldo" searches for a trace of nature without finding it, and when he thinks that what he has come across is something natural, not subject to exchange processes, he falls into problems and contradictions that make the reader of the work laugh. At the same time, it reveals the oppressive nature that confiscates human freedom, represented by the society of the machine. It discovers—for example—that instead of hunting wild pigeons, he hunts the pigeons raised by the neighbors, and instead of treating rheumatism with bee stings, he treats it with wasp stings. Instead of stealing a healthy rabbit, he steals a rabbit subjected to experiments and infected with toxic and dangerous germs. Thus, each story of Markovaldo forms an essential paradox that reveals the destruction of nature and its primary elements. Number of pages: 166