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funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Dinosaurs ride trains, prisoners reconceptualize The Count of Monte Cristo as a geometry problem, and a deaf fisherman gently pushes the Moon away from Earth with a long bamboo stick. Even when they sometimes drag on, there's a wonderful spark of imagination in all of Calvino's science fiction fairytales.
Some of my favorite stories:
* "The Chase" -- A thriller and math experiment set in a traffic jam.
* "The Distance of the Moon" -- Probably the most well-written of the stories.
* "The Meteorites" -- Qwfwq tries to keep two lovers -- one on the clean side of Earth, and one on the junky side of Earth.
Just a shame that Calvino's stories gave me a headache as often as they made me light up with "Ahah!" Calvino's M.O. is to explore any idea to its umpteenth degree, often overflowing with words words words words -- and it gets a little tiresome when I've already deduced where he's going and now have to wait for him to get there in his own sweet time.
Still, I like what Calvino set out to do, bending the Universe and literary devices to create something wholly Italian, cosmopolitan, old and brand new. And I appreciate that, as a writer, he beats his own odd, eclectic drum to please exactly one reader: himself.
Some of my favorite stories:
* "The Chase" -- A thriller and math experiment set in a traffic jam.
* "The Distance of the Moon" -- Probably the most well-written of the stories.
"You had only dip the spoon under the scales that covered the Moon's scabby terrain, and you brought it out filled with that precious muck"
* "The Meteorites" -- Qwfwq tries to keep two lovers -- one on the clean side of Earth, and one on the junky side of Earth.
Just a shame that Calvino's stories gave me a headache as often as they made me light up with "Ahah!" Calvino's M.O. is to explore any idea to its umpteenth degree, often overflowing with words words words words -- and it gets a little tiresome when I've already deduced where he's going and now have to wait for him to get there in his own sweet time.
Still, I like what Calvino set out to do, bending the Universe and literary devices to create something wholly Italian, cosmopolitan, old and brand new. And I appreciate that, as a writer, he beats his own odd, eclectic drum to please exactly one reader: himself.
Fantastic book! I loved many of these stories, and I'll definitely read this book again. I loved the structure of the Qfwfq stories, starting off with a non-fiction, science-y paragraph, and then developing a story out of it. I also loved the idea of Qfwfq and other characters being some sort of immortal entities who have been around since the beginning of the universe, and the way Calvino would balance the abstract nature of the stories with scenes firmly grounded in reality. I became a little bogged down in the last third of the book, and it took me a while to finish it.
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
An imaginative journey across space, time, and forms of existence. These bizzarre and humorous stories have an underlying profoundness to them. You don’t just read Calvino’s words, you experience and inhabit them. Definitely a book I’d go back and read more than once.
This series of vignettes that draws heavily upon science, tackles subjects such as the creation and the evolution of the universe. It is quite outlandish but exemplary. If you do happen to enjoy science and to a lesser extent, mathematics, Calvino does a great job at scattering easter eggs throughout, such as the name of the main character "Qfwfq" which is an allusion to the first law of thermodynamics. There is no clear progress in the course of Qfwfq's fictional autobiography, sometimes a wise narrator and sometimes naive, (especially when it comes to love), we follow his various lives or one continuous one as he recounts his struggles to interpret the embryonic and evolving universe. Despite his many non-human manifestations, he succumbs to a very known human temptation: to understand the world around him. We follow a heavily anthropomorphised Qfwfq as a dinosaur, a mollusk, an amphibian and a cell who yearns for the pre-symbolic era. This enactment of postmoderism's paradoxical awareness and nostalgia is a delight. It does take brain power to read but for anyone interested in science presented in a radically different way, it is absolutely worth it.
Cosmicomics - 5 stars
More of Qfwfq - 4 stars
Priscilla - 5 stars
t zero - 2 stars
World Memory and Other Cosmicomic Stories - 4 stars
Cosmicomics - 5 stars
More of Qfwfq - 4 stars
Priscilla - 5 stars
t zero - 2 stars
World Memory and Other Cosmicomic Stories - 4 stars
5 stars for a literary genius who used unique ways to describe things that are otherwise indescribable, but I don't think I want to read some of these stories ever again. I realized that some of it is as cringe-inducing as The Big Bang Theory and is written in the same manner. Perhaps it is the result of translations.. but I don't like it.
Ha, finally.
I've reached out for this book after listening to Radiolab's great rendering of Distance of the Moon. Let's just say the rest of the comics is not as good as this one. It's very much a delightful trip, albeit it gets tedious at the times. There are certain quirks of the author that are bit tiring after prolonged exposure - for example, tendency to squeeze in love stories in the plot, no matter whether they fit there or not. All in all - the stories are tasty, but it's very easy to overdose on them. Tread carefully.
I've reached out for this book after listening to Radiolab's great rendering of Distance of the Moon. Let's just say the rest of the comics is not as good as this one. It's very much a delightful trip, albeit it gets tedious at the times. There are certain quirks of the author that are bit tiring after prolonged exposure - for example, tendency to squeeze in love stories in the plot, no matter whether they fit there or not. All in all - the stories are tasty, but it's very easy to overdose on them. Tread carefully.
Interesting collection of speculative fiction/sci-fi short stories with a cosmological/astronomical bent. The style here was fascinating -- almost absurdist, but not quite. I particularly enjoyed the stories that leaned into that, with a slightly more personal tone, but since there were over 30 stories in this collection, not all of them quite resonated. Overall a solid and engaging read.