No doubt in my mind, in this section Calvino is teaching the reader the glories of hypertext. Even the title indicates the track he’s on: In a network of lines that enlace.
First we have an idea of what words can and cannot do:
The first sensation this should convey is what I feel when I hear the telephone ring; I say "should" because I doubt that written words can give even a partial idea of it: it is not enough to declare that my reaction is one of refusal, of flight from this…(p. 132)
But here’s the exciting part:
Perhaps the mistake lies in establishing that at the beginning I and a telephone are in a finate space such as my house would be, whereas what I must communicate is my situation with regard to numerous telephones that ring; these telephones are perhaps not calling me, have no relation to me, bu the mere fact that I can be called to a telephone suffices to make it possible or at least conceivable that I may be called by all telephones. (133)
Back in the first person, Calvino has provided us with an image of an enclosure, the house, then proceeds to open it up into possibilities that include every telephone within every house. These, of course, are linked by lines and networks. As the narrator goes down the street on his morning run, he wonders if a phone ringing in one of his neighbors’ houses might still be a call meant for him.
He feels that someone can follow him and can still reach him wherever he is. The story does include intrigue beyond the structure of possibilities, and in fact, the reader will be surprised by how the narrator is tied in and reached by the hypertext of the telephone line.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology