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Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
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Cosmicomics (original 1965; edition 1976)

by Italo Calvino

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3,178484,183 (4.07)85
Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. "Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?"--Publisher description.… (more)
Member:davidorban
Title:Cosmicomics
Authors:Italo Calvino
Info:Harvest/HBJ Book (1976), Paperback
Collections:Your library
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Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (1965)

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» See also 85 mentions

English (44)  Italian (2)  Spanish (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (48)
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
I reread the book as a novel way to communicate scientific ideas. In reality the book does something different, it transposes the scientific abstraction into the every day and makes for funny paradoxes, absurd relationships between abstracted beings. The fiction is still very much high-culture and actually doesn’t really clarify any of the science but makes for a different kind of fiction.

Sometimes the overall effect is original, fun and rich. Other times the effect is stilted, distant, a bit off putting. In any case a unique experiment in fiction. ( )
  yates9 | Feb 28, 2024 |
Qwfwq personifies nebular matter, or tiny amoebas, or mathematical concepts to reveal certain emotional truths. In the first story some characters are caught halfway in between the gravitational pulls of the earth and the moon and must literally chose between two worlds. In another a mollusk possesses as rich a sensory and poetic internal life as anyone else because he can intuit the world around him through the contents of the ocean secretions he consumes.

I felt like Qwfwq was less a trillion-year-old shapeshifter and more an old man full of tall tales. So when you brought up a fact in your science textbook like time and space itself is curved, he'll respond with "not just curved but notched and pocketed, one time me and a beautiful woman were free-falling through empty space and we landed in one of those pockets and let me tell you things got steamy in there!"

Which brings me to the best joke about Cosmicomics: how horny old Qwfwq is. He's been around for trillions of years and witnessed godlike perspectives but a good majority of these stories are about his attempts to win over another proto-amphibiod, or chunk of stellar dust, or she-mollusk who is both inexplicably female and the most beautiful thing in the galaxy. ( )
  ethorwitz | Jan 3, 2024 |
Original, erudite, shows author's great intelligence and unbounded imagination but...I don't know...pointless? Not to a degree of the Invisible Cities though, but still. Should it not be for the 'Dinosaurs' parable, I would've considered reading it a total waste of time.
  Den85 | Jan 3, 2024 |
Great condensation of everything I love about Calvino, the experimental thought and exploration. ( )
  Kiramke | Sep 13, 2023 |
Firstly these little hardback Penguin editions are lovely, a great size, bright colours, lovely designs. I kind of want them all.

And what a collection this is, quirky stories of the creation and history of the universe through the eyes of Qfwfq, an unpronounceable being who seemingly exists throughout all of time and space to tell us stories. We have all of matter co-existing in a single point before the big bang, we have an awkward uncle refusing to evolve onto the land with the rest of his family, a mollusc inventing a spiral shell to impress another. The stories are strange, surreal and lots of fun with their mixture of science and emotion. ( )
  AlisonSakai | Jul 11, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (20 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Calvino, Italoprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Baranelli, LucaEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Montale, EugenioContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ryömä, LiisaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weaver, WilliamTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Una volta, secondo Sir George H. Darwin, la Luna era molto vicina alla Terra. Furono le maree che a poco a poco la spinsero lontano: le maree che lei Luna provoca nelle acque terrestri e in cui la Terra perde lentamente energia.
At one time, according to Sir George H. Darwin, the Moon was very close to the Earth. Then the tides gradually pushed her far away: the tides that the Moon herself causes in the Earth’s waters, where the Earth slowly loses energy.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
There is a later, expanded work "Complete Cosmicomics" / Tutte le cosmicomiche" that contains significant amount of material that does not exist in this, original edition. Please keep the different editions separate.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. "Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?"--Publisher description.

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Book description
Colección de todas las cosmicómicas escritas por Italo Calvino.

Table of
 Contents:

The distance of the moon --At daybreak --A sign in space --All at one point --Without colors --Games without end --The aquatic uncle --How much shall we bet? --The dinosaurs --The form of space --The light-years --The spiral.
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