Sean

The Idle Book Club 8: Cosmicomics

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I started reading Cosmicomics about a week ago and am really enjoying it so far.

 

If I had a recommendation for people reading it, it's that it is a collection of short stories, and thus should be read that way; one at a time, each as its own story. If you try to rush through them, you might find it a little fatiguing, particularly the little stylistic elements that are repeated in each story.

 

It's an obvious point to make, but I'm mentioning it as I had a little trouble with it myself. After remembering this fact and slowing down a bit, I'm getting a lot more out of the collection than I otherwise would have been.

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f I had a recommendation for people reading it, it's that it is a collection of short stories, and thus should be read that way; one at a time, each as its own story. If you try to rush through them, you might find it a little fatiguing, particularly the little stylistic elements that are repeated in each story.

 

Ten times yes to that,yesterday I read 5 in a rows, and I overdosed on the style and mannerism of Qfwfq for the near future.

Maybe one story every two days during commute or breakfast is the best.

 

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I'm going to third that. I've only read the first two, but there were a few days in between and I could tell even just based on that that it was the correct method.

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This collection occupies such a weird space for me. It's labeled as a collection of short story fiction, but I think it could just as easily be considered a book with one cohesive narrative that is just structured in a disjointed way (kind of like Visit from the Goon Squad or Brief Interviews with Hideous Men).

 

It is also the longest I have taken to read a 150 page book. Every 5 or 10 pages (the average length of one of the stories), I have to put the book down and just marvel at how someone can write something that is so beautiful and yet so simple. This really is a perfect 'I read this book because someone I have a crush on told me too.'

 

Is anyone able to read it in Italian? I'm really curious to know how the original differs from the translation (I imagine that the Italian probably sounds more lyrical than it does in English, but that's just based on my very, very scant knowledge of the language).

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I thought about reading it in Italian, but there's no way I'd finish it in a month if I did. From the Calvino I have read in his native tongue, I can tell you that his economy is all the more impressive. Italian is a much more discursive language than English, I think.

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From the basic premise, I'd assumed somewhere in the back of my head this would involve personifications of astral bodies and elements, rather than a (near enough) human perspective.  And so when I reached page two (after several halfhearted attempts) and a ladder to the moon came out, I did a huge double-take.  Wait. This inspired Pixar's "La Luna"?

 

About half way through, it's the stories closest to this that have stood out so far.  A tiny human perspective of huge concepts of time and space, expressed as bittersweet love stories.  These ingredients also stood out in the story of a world without colour.  By comparison, the etherial drifting through space hasn't been quite as gripping; the wonders of the universe are all the more wonderful through human eyes.

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Finished the collection a few nights ago, and it was a fantastic reading experience for me. Calvino's rich prose shoots up past the clouds into the eternal, while simultaneously being grounded in these familial or small community relationships.

I enjoyed all of the stories, but one that really struck me while reading was The Light Years. While I can see how it relates to life in a small community, with everyone watching, judging and being judged by everyone else, it seemed incredibly prescient in regards to social networks.

The constant effort expended to display your life as you wish it to be perceived, the unforseeable (and possibly adverse) effects of what you actually choose to display; these are all issues that have come to the fore recently in regard to networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

And on a more literal front, the way communication is broadcasted out from planets instead of directly passed from one to the other (even if the information is only really meant for one receiver), and the "character limit" of the signs, which affects the style of communication displayed upon them, is incredibly reminiscent of Twitter.

The Distance of the Moon, the first story in the collection, may still be my favourite, but another that really intrigued me was The Form of Space. It was such a pleasing surprise to discover that Calvino was using the very words he was writing to express how these characters could move around while existing in only one dimension.

In any case, I've moved on to Wolf Hall, but I bought a copy of The Complete Cosmicomics, so I have Time and the Hunter and the rest of the stories within to return to at a future date.

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I'm just going to leave here a recommendation to anyone that has enjoyed this collection so far. Don't stop there. Read If on a winter's night a traveler... or Invisible Cities or The Baron in the Trees or The Castle of Crossed Destinies.

If anything read If on a winter's night a traveler... and maybe go, "That inspired these? What would Cloud Atlas have been if Calvino had not explored those ideas before him?" And on and on. Calvino is a wonder truly.

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This really is a perfect 'I read this book because someone I have a crush on told me too.'

I also need to point out the truth of this statement. I first picked up If on a winter's night a traveler... in limbo between middle school and my freshman year of high school due to a recommendation from a crush. I think in some ways it helped me to get over all of that. I ended up with a more enduring love in what the book had to say than in what the crush could ever give me. I realized a few years later how easily I had fallen into Calvino's trap when I read his book on what makes classic literature just that. He says that "A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."

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I enjoyed If on a Winter's Night a Traveler more than I did Cosmocomics. Our Ancestors (which comprises The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, and The Nonexistent Knight) is sitting in my bookshelf, waiting to be read.

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It has been so long since I read If on a winter's night a traveler--I know that I enjoyed it, but I don't remember enough of it to rank it above Cosmicomics. (Anyway, I'm selfishly glad that they picked any other Calvino book besides one that I had already read).

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I seem to remember enjoying all the Calvino I've read so far, but I really didn't like Cosmicomics. I think that I would have appreciated each segments a bit more if I had stumbled upon them by chance in collections with other stories; but the effect of the style over time really irritated me. That comes mainly from Calvino decision to cast Qfwfq as an obnoxious old timer and to push this aspect of his personality in the text nearly every single sentence.

In the abstract, a narrator that has the voice of old survivor/witness is fine - the translation of Australian Aboriginal myths I've read use a imilar device with great success - but Calvino drags his character to such an extreme that he makes him obnoxious, unlikeable.

After two stories, I didn't want to hear from him anymore. I was interested in the stories, but not in the way he was telling them: he does sound like an old self centered grandpa who can't wait to use his eons of knowledge to craft a nifty paradoxical thought experiment, not caring if the audience is one step ahead or not. Yes, I understand that it is mindbending to talk in first person about the reason for a mollusc to attempt something when he doesn't have a brain that can give birth to that sot of process. Yes , you're telling the existence at a point like it's a naturalistic italian movie which is ahah. But it drags on and on, and it's too obfuscated when the core idea do not have the potential breadth that would allow for exploration over dozens of pages.

I'm tempted to say that the book does better when it decides to focus on his narrator's feeling, but even then, Qfwfq's reactions are frustratring: despite his eons of existence and radical experiences, he doesn't seem to learn anything about relationships with others; and his self centerness is dismall.

Which brings me to my final point: is this by design? Did Calvino intend to make such a flawed omniscient narrator that even though he knows everything doesn't learn? Is it his point to make the reader feels superior in his capacity to analyze the situation and empathise with the other protagonists? Is the tedious style a testament to Calvino's integrity or is it a bad choice altogether?

Can a writer use a bad narrator - someone who can't really tell story - and display this flaw without veil again and again in order to make a larger point? When does it become bad writing? How the hell am I suppose to know?

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Interesting post! Do you have some examples of the Aboriginal myths that you mentioned? I'd like to read them.

 

 

Which brings me to my final point: is this by design? Did Calvino intend to make such a flawed omniscient narrator that even though he knows everything doesn't learn? Is it his point to make the reader feels superior in his capacity to analyze the situation and empathise with the other protagonists? Is the tedious style a testament to Calvino's integrity or is it a bad choice altogether?

 

 

I think that your dislike of the character/writing is valid, but it seems to me an illogical step to assume that Calvino himself didn't like his own writing, especially considering that a lot of people (including me) do like the writing style in Cosmicomics.

For my part, Qfwfq didn't seem like a consistent personality across the different stories - in some of them the narrator's thoughts and emotions seemed to come to the fore, while in others he disappears into the background after the introductory paragraph. It seemed to me more that Qfwfq was a being that contains the memory of several distinct lives - a different one in each story. To me, the last Dinosaur is a distinct character from the protagonist of The Distance of the Moon, who is distinct (though similar in some respects) to the narrator in The Form of Space.

I don't want to suggest that my reading is the correct one - I'd be interested to hear how other people read the character of Qfwfq and how intact/separate he seems to them.

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It seemed to me more that Qfwfq was a being that contains the memory of several distinct lives - a different one in each story.

 

I would agree with this, especially since I didn't immediately realize that Qfwfq was a recurring character in the stories, because each iteration of him feels different. There are still aspects that connect the different Qfwfqs, but each story could almost be told from a completely new character's perspective. But given that the stories themselves are about the many shifting multitudes that the universe contains, it makes sense that Calvino would want to tell these stories from the viewpoint of the same character, with only slight alterations depending on the circumstances.

 

As far as his personality, I never had a problem identifying with Qfwfq. He's flawed, but his flaws are no more egregious than the flaws of most people, so it was easy for me to sympathize with him. Especially in "Distance of the Moon." I'm sure that everyone can relate to the feeling of unrequited love, and this story very beautifully captures how raw and upsetting that emotion can be, most notably through the character of the Captain's wife. I really hesitate to pick a 'favorite' story, since I don't really think that the stories can be separated out from one another, but if I had to, "Distance of the Moon" would be my favorite.

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Honestly, I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through the collection, but the narrator seems far more wistful than anything at this point. It's hard to characterize him as cranky when Calvino unleashes those amazing, poetic endings that soar off into the clouds.

 

Also, if y'all liked these stories, I'd highly recommend you tackle Borges. His premises are a bit more focused on the metaphysical side (and he's more interested in pursuing their implications than Calvino's tangents), but Borges rules nonetheless.

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I definitely prefer the collections that I read of Borges' over this collection, he's got infinitely more variety (but then this is a themed collection as I understand it).

 

Great poetic language for sure, and a fantastic concept. Very happy this book got picked.

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Finished the book this afternoon; I kinda steamrolled through it in the exact way that y'all recommended NOT doing. :)

 

Like I said earlier, Calvino's novel is similar to Borges in the high-concept, borderline metaphysical premises, but more focused on the characters rather than following all the consequences of that premise. That's not to say that Borges isn't emotional; one of his under-appreciated gifts, and one lacking in most of his wanna-be successors, was in wringing emotional grist out of his evocative images and premises. Instead, Calvino isn't afraid to weave a separate emotional story onto the premise, or wander off-topic as he continues down the tale.

 

Indeed, Calvino is more interested in using the outlandish settings to more literally represent emotions and relationships that exist in our own lives, albeit in more subtler forums. For example, one of the stories depicts the transition of some species from the land to the sea—but struggling with relatives who have refused to make the change, and seem stuck in their ways yet still insist on their own wisdom.. Our narrator's girlfriend is thoroughly habituated to the land, and he fears of the consequences if he introduces her to his great-uncle. Even if we aren't amphibian, can't we recognize this tale?

 

This sort of panpsychism pervades the stories, with our narrator Qfwfq taking the form of a dinosaur, a mollusk, pre-creation matter, and more. Calvino's painstaking efforts to depict the sensory experiences of these creatures are what lends the book a poetic edge, since you rarely see those kinds of explorations in prose. There are exceptions of course, like Nagel's "What is it like to be a bat?", but they tend to be specialized forms and not general fiction.

 

Talking about it with Sarah, she mentioned that the book seemed to be more a novel than a collection of short stories, and I'd agree. Resonating throughout many of the stories is love, loss, and dealing with the confluence of the two. Calvino's language is beautiful, yet dwells in melancholy. If this had been his only book I would have thought it a personal obsession, but it instead resonates as a particularly thoughtful thematic choice for a book concerned with the consequences and casualties of cosmic creation.

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Finally finished the last two stories (chapters?) last night.

 

Calvino has some of the best depictions of human relationships that I have ever read. 'The Light Years' was particularly striking, mostly because I know all to well what it's like to agonize over how your actions are being perceived by others, and to then feel guilty because you're giving too much consideration to how others think of you. The contrast between that very human fear and the inconceivable grandness of light traveling through space, was absolutely beautiful. This is a beautiful book overall and it was such a joy to read.

 

My only complaint--and I'm not entirely sure if this is justified--is that the sexual relationships were always from the perspective of a man, Qfwfq. I didn't have any issues understanding that perspective, but I was a little disappointed that all the women in the stories were just objects for Qfwfq to lust after, or to use as representations of his own sexual frustrations and inadequacies  Again, I'm not entirely sure this is even a fair criticism to make, it's just something that I started to notice. As a comparison, I recently read Junot Diaz's short story collection This is How You Lose Her. It deals with many of the same themes as Calvino's book (albeit minus the cosmic backdrop), and also features a male character who is present in all of the individual stories. What Diaz does that is different, however, is provide a few stories from the perspective of the woman in the relationship, which works as a good corrective to only hearing the male character's version of events. I almost wish that Calvino had done something similar in Cosmicomics.

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After all the positive comments, I feel like I should re-read this book at some point. I first read Complete Cosmicomics some 4 or 5 years ago, and I feel like I might appreciate it more now. I may also have to check out if should switch from Finnish to English translation this time around.

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I really have to recommend "Invisible Cities" to everyone. I have read "Cosmicomics" and "If On a Winters Night a Traveller" and it's still my favourite. Maybe it was the translations I read but I found "Invisible Cities" to have a far more flowing and beautiful style than the other two. The language in "Cosmicomics" seemed very simple and even stark to me in comparison.

 

Still I really enjoyed "Cosimicomics" I first read it quite quickly because I was borrowing it but I might have to pick it up and re-read it now.

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My only complaint--and I'm not entirely sure if this is justified--is that the sexual relationships were always from the perspective of a man, Qfwfq. I didn't have any issues understanding that perspective, but I was a little disappointed that all the women in the stories were just objects for Qfwfq to lust after, or to use as representations of his own sexual frustrations and inadequacies  Again, I'm not entirely sure this is even a fair criticism to make, it's just something that I started to notice.

 

I'm similarly unsure of whether my feelings about this are fair, but I definitely noticed this while reading and felt it was a shame to have all of these stories be from a slightly antiquated male-centric perspective. The story that reached the furthest away from this was maybe The Aquatic Uncle, where Qfwfq's partner seems to take an active interest in how living underwater works - however, she ends up partnering with the Uncle and falling back into that role of possession.

 

There're probably a lot of reasons why it'd be harder than I imagine it to be, and it's hard to know how essential the male-centrism and focus on possessiveness is to Calvino's work, but I would have loved it if some of the stories were either from a female character's perspective, or contained women that felt more like characters rather than objects.

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I really have to recommend "Invisible Cities" to everyone. I have read "Cosmicomics" and "If On a Winters Night a Traveller" and it's still my favourite. Maybe it was the translations I read but I found "Invisible Cities" to have a far more flowing and beautiful style than the other two. The language in "Cosmicomics" seemed very simple and even stark to me in comparison.

 

Still I really enjoyed "Cosimicomics" I first read it quite quickly because I was borrowing it but I might have to pick it up and re-read it now.

 

Interestingly I think Cities comes closer to that Borges tone and focus that gregbrown mentioned.

 

 

There're probably a lot of reasons why it'd be harder than I imagine it to be, and it's hard to know how essential the male-centrism and focus on possessiveness is to Calvino's work, but I would have loved it if some of the stories were either from a female character's perspective, or contained women that felt more like characters rather than objects.

 

I had a friend who despised If on a winters night because of the male-centric and specific structure the narration in that book has. I think that calvino can offer some super interesting work on gender, (see the on a carpet of leaves chapter in winters night) but I still recognise a particular male perspective that is quite hard to get away from in his work. 

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Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed some weird gender issues in these stories. I don't find Calvino as off-putting as other writers from this time period (Roth, Updike, Mailer), but by the time I reached the end of Cosmicomics, I was a little frustrated with seeing the same female character repeated over and over again. It's completely fine to write stories about relationships from a male perspective, but that doesn't mean all your female characters should solely exist as objects of desire--they can be people too. That's why I still think 'Distance of the Moon' is one of the stronger stories in this collection; the female character feels like a real person and has actual depth to her character beyond being the object of sexual attraction for the male narrator.

 

I'm trying not to sound too harsh on Cosmicomics because I really did love reading these stories. The gender stuff is just one small negative I have with Calvino's writing.

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The question could be posed whether it's necessary to get away from that though - write what you know and all that. Still, to be truly great I suppose it might be necessary to be able to portray all of humanity, not just 50%.

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