How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"Do you believe that every story must have a beginning and an end? In ancient times a story could end only in two ways: having passed all the tests, the hero and the heroine married, or else they died. The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death." (21.25)
Want a quick rundown of how Calvino talks about language in If on a winter's night a traveler? Just take a gander at this passage. Throughout its pages, the novel has spoken about how words never fully capture meaning in the way we want them to, and so we keep on talking into the future. This continuation of speaking is the part of language that refers to the "continuity of life" ending of stories, which is usually symbolized by a marriage.
But as Calvino reminds us, there is another face to this same coin: the face of death, which will reach us when language itself goes silent. (Ominous, we know.) We don't know when that day will be, but it seems unlikely that language will continue being spoken into infinity. So as language continues going, it does so with the awareness that somewhere in the future, the ultimate end is coming. This is what is represented by the other ending of stories: death. It also refers back to the "the true end, final" that the seventh library reader mentions (21.12). It's like some sort of language apocalypse.