4thace reviewed The complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Grownup science fables
4 stars
This is a collection of magical realist stories strongly flavored with twentieth-century science, told in an exuberant style. One recurring narrator is named Qfwfq who claims to remember the first few moments of the Big Bang and the time before stars began to shine, through billions of years of cosmic time up to the point where life emerged on planets like ours in the form of a sort of freshwater mollusc. Many of the stories juxtapose commonplace emotions with settings dreamed up by the author's mind. Instead of concentrating on futuristic marvels as science fiction books tend to do these stories turn time and again to the feelings of figures we recognize from people we all know. The obsessions the characters have are ones we have or know from people around us, veering off into nonsense or casually alluding to astronomical time scales and distances when the reader does not …
This is a collection of magical realist stories strongly flavored with twentieth-century science, told in an exuberant style. One recurring narrator is named Qfwfq who claims to remember the first few moments of the Big Bang and the time before stars began to shine, through billions of years of cosmic time up to the point where life emerged on planets like ours in the form of a sort of freshwater mollusc. Many of the stories juxtapose commonplace emotions with settings dreamed up by the author's mind. Instead of concentrating on futuristic marvels as science fiction books tend to do these stories turn time and again to the feelings of figures we recognize from people we all know. The obsessions the characters have are ones we have or know from people around us, veering off into nonsense or casually alluding to astronomical time scales and distances when the reader does not expect it. Their displays of jealousy, selfishness, self-centeredness, lust, and vanity serve to push the plot forward. It is all very fun, sometimes poignant, with glimpses of wisdom here and there. Facts relating to space science, biology, or cosmology stud the narrative which may be foreign to most readers but it is not necessary to be familiar with everything the author throws out there. If you do have a technical background it is a little surprising how much he commits to accuracy when you do not expect it.
