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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
When the fishermen began climbing a ladder to the moon, I knew Italo Calvino and I would be friends.
This short story - the first of twelve - represents Cosmicomics at its best. Calvino takes a simple scientific theory (that the moon once orbited much closer to the Earth), exaggerates time and scale enough to make it perceptible, and uses it as the backdrop for a bittersweet love story. He turns an incomprehensible concept, shows it through tiny human eyes, and makes it comprehensible.
The narrator, Qwfwq, takes many forms throughout the collection, varying wildly in size and ability. One story he is an interstellar deity creating and surfing galaxies; the next, he is a prehistoric mollusc. Generally, I found those that worked from the bottom up much more interesting. They make the universe feel even larger. Those that presented it as smaller, a plaything of petty intersteller beings, often missed the mark for me. But even those (only comparative) misfires had their share of Clever and Cute.
I will remember this book for the images it left behind:
A fisherman looking up from the moon to Earth's vast ocean as an angled ceiling, seeing his friends floating above in boats. stretching their ladders down/up toward him.
An awkward, millennia-spanning conversation between galaxies involving signs and telscopes.
A boy chasing a girl through a dull grey world as it develops an atmosphere, giving it the gift of colour.
These are images that warp reality just enough to tell a great story. These are images that will stick with me.
This short story - the first of twelve - represents Cosmicomics at its best. Calvino takes a simple scientific theory (that the moon once orbited much closer to the Earth), exaggerates time and scale enough to make it perceptible, and uses it as the backdrop for a bittersweet love story. He turns an incomprehensible concept, shows it through tiny human eyes, and makes it comprehensible.
The narrator, Qwfwq, takes many forms throughout the collection, varying wildly in size and ability. One story he is an interstellar deity creating and surfing galaxies; the next, he is a prehistoric mollusc. Generally, I found those that worked from the bottom up much more interesting. They make the universe feel even larger. Those that presented it as smaller, a plaything of petty intersteller beings, often missed the mark for me. But even those (only comparative) misfires had their share of Clever and Cute.
I will remember this book for the images it left behind:
A fisherman looking up from the moon to Earth's vast ocean as an angled ceiling, seeing his friends floating above in boats. stretching their ladders down/up toward him.
An awkward, millennia-spanning conversation between galaxies involving signs and telscopes.
A boy chasing a girl through a dull grey world as it develops an atmosphere, giving it the gift of colour.
These are images that warp reality just enough to tell a great story. These are images that will stick with me.
Nog nooit zo iets gelezen. Een verzameling korte verhalen over het ontstaan van het universum, de werking van evolutie, het bewegen van de aardplaten en andere waanzinnige natuurlijke processen. Deze worden allemaal vertelt vanuit het perspectief van Qwfwq, een wezen dat nooit getypeerd wordt en per verhaal weer veranderd.
Niet alle verhalen konden mij grijpen, soms sloeg ik er een over, maar het merendeel zoog me op. De ontroerende schoonheid van de oneindigheid, de angst voor het eeuwige vallen in de ruimte, Calvino weet er een menselijke draai aan te geven die de bewondering voor deze natuurlijke ontwikkelingen flink vergroot.
Soms moeilijk te lezen en zeker niet voor iedereen aan te raden maar ik snap waarom Le Guin en Rushdie hier zo enthousiast over zijn.
Niet alle verhalen konden mij grijpen, soms sloeg ik er een over, maar het merendeel zoog me op. De ontroerende schoonheid van de oneindigheid, de angst voor het eeuwige vallen in de ruimte, Calvino weet er een menselijke draai aan te geven die de bewondering voor deze natuurlijke ontwikkelingen flink vergroot.
Soms moeilijk te lezen en zeker niet voor iedereen aan te raden maar ik snap waarom Le Guin en Rushdie hier zo enthousiast over zijn.
Flipping amazing. If you have a brain and wish to befuddle it with magic glory, read this.
Felt at various points like being read a bedtime story/attending the kind of performed lecture where the lecturer gesticulates and like, strides up and down/being told obvious lies by a confident 6 year old boy. Rarely felt like a book.
I love the layers of impossible, contridictory past this imagines: at least three moons, and a whole history of advanced cities, tucked into the pages of the earth.
The standout stories, for me
I love the layers of impossible, contridictory past this imagines: at least three moons, and a whole history of advanced cities, tucked into the pages of the earth.
The standout stories, for me
- 'The Light-Years' and 'The Dinosaurs' - Felt like the best examples, focused and human, of the Cosmicomic form. The ones to refresh myself on.
- 'The Meteorites' and 'Solar Storm' - Not my favourite in terms of plotting, but some outstanding worldimagining.
- 'The Night Driver' - Easily the most rewarding of what I thought of as the logic puzzles stories, from t zero. Really liked this as a very specific mediation on relationships.
Not sure I would return to this complete edition - there's a lot of stories, there's a lot of book, and without the momentum of plot to pull me through, I stopped and started. But in fragments, yes.
Cosmicomics is a book to be dipped into now and again, to give the reader time to turn each story over in his/her mind to really appreciate what's being said. All of the stories use some scientific fact or hypothesis as the seed for a story built around that theme. The present book collects stories from Cosmicomics, Time and the Hunter, Numbers in the Dark and World Memory and Other Cosmicomic Stories.
The original Cosmicomics stories are the best of the best in this collection, being witty, playful, erudite and whimsical all at once. Probably the best known is the first story, The Distance of the Moon (which I can't help but think provided the inspiration for Pixar's La Luna short film). Unfortunately, I found the stories from Time and the Hunter much more difficult reading as they were about more abstract and philosophical. However, I think they would probably benefit from re-reading for more comprehension on my part. The rest of the stories were more in the vein of the original collection, but to me that the magic was missing in some of them. That said, the best stories in the set involve Qfwfq, Calvino's narrator/tour guide through the universe who relates such events as the origin of the universe, the introduction of color on Earth, and various and sundry extrapolations about the moon.
As I said above, all of the stories are worth reading, though you'll want to give yourself some time to digest each story as you finish it.
The original Cosmicomics stories are the best of the best in this collection, being witty, playful, erudite and whimsical all at once. Probably the best known is the first story, The Distance of the Moon (which I can't help but think provided the inspiration for Pixar's La Luna short film). Unfortunately, I found the stories from Time and the Hunter much more difficult reading as they were about more abstract and philosophical. However, I think they would probably benefit from re-reading for more comprehension on my part. The rest of the stories were more in the vein of the original collection, but to me that the magic was missing in some of them. That said, the best stories in the set involve Qfwfq, Calvino's narrator/tour guide through the universe who relates such events as the origin of the universe, the introduction of color on Earth, and various and sundry extrapolations about the moon.
As I said above, all of the stories are worth reading, though you'll want to give yourself some time to digest each story as you finish it.
It seems that stars are not enough to describe this book, even though they appear on its pages ever so often. The writing is unlike anything I've read before - otherworldly, enchanting and mysterious. Each tale begins with a scientific quote, making it all the more fascinating and relatable at the same time. However it is what comes after that makes Cosmicomics a work of pure genius. Calvino takes known facts about the genesis of Earth and twists them into humorous and experimental escapades through language, space and time. After a while the reader becomes so familiar with the bizarre world of Cosmicomics that even Qwfwq, the protagonist's name, seems absolutely normal. That is until you try to explain it to Other Readers, those who have not yet had the pleasure of devouring Calvino's books. And it is a fine pleasure indeed.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated