📚APR 2026 Cosmicomics #6 GAMES WITHOUT END
Original topic subject: 📚APR 2026 Cosmiccomics #6 WITHOUT COLORS
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1DebiCates
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino translated by William Weaver, collection first published 1965.
Discussion links:
Introduction
The Distance of the Moon
At Daybreak
A Sign in Space
All at One Point
Without Colors
Games Without End (This page)
The Aquatic Uncle
How Much Shall We Bet?
The Dinosaurs
The Form of Space
The Light-Years
The Spiral
Final Thoughts
Discussion links:
Introduction
The Distance of the Moon
At Daybreak
A Sign in Space
All at One Point
Without Colors
Games Without End (This page)
The Aquatic Uncle
How Much Shall We Bet?
The Dinosaurs
The Form of Space
The Light-Years
The Spiral
Final Thoughts
2DebiCates
Imagine grabbing a galaxy by the tail and flying through the Universe with it. Well, that's one of the things Calvino's primary protagonist, an entity named Qfwfq, did.
This is a story about Qfwfq as a youth while the Universe was still forming, and still forming because it is (in this premise) always still forming, there is no "not time." A Universe that is always the same, which means always forming. (This comes to the forefront in this story at the end.)
It begins with Qfwfq having a buddy, Pfwfq, that he liked to play marbles with. The marbles were hydrogen atoms. And like all young marble-players, the newest, shiniest marbles were the one most valued.
New hydrogen atoms? Yes, there is, or rather was, a theory, the Steady State theory https://www.britannica.com/science/steady-state-theory, that proposes that as the galaxies grow further and further apart, the Universe must keep a certain equilibrium of matter to space, and once out of balance, new hydrogen atoms form (from thin air, you might say), which eventually leads to new galaxies to keep that space/matter balance.
Although Calvino "played" with this idea, it is one of those discounted theories. In fact, was discounted in 1965, the same year Cosmicomics was published. That doesn't change the enjoyment of his unique treatment of it, though.
I am still quite under the spell of Calvino's ability to imagine such complicated ideas, to take readers with him while he mixes imagination with astrophysics. Indeed, I often wonder what an astrophysicist would think of this book. Would she harrumph at the absurdities? Or would she laugh out loud at the great romp that it is? Maybe even recommend it to her non-genius friends.
My hero, Calvino:
This is a story about Qfwfq as a youth while the Universe was still forming, and still forming because it is (in this premise) always still forming, there is no "not time." A Universe that is always the same, which means always forming. (This comes to the forefront in this story at the end.)
It begins with Qfwfq having a buddy, Pfwfq, that he liked to play marbles with. The marbles were hydrogen atoms. And like all young marble-players, the newest, shiniest marbles were the one most valued.
New hydrogen atoms? Yes, there is, or rather was, a theory, the Steady State theory https://www.britannica.com/science/steady-state-theory, that proposes that as the galaxies grow further and further apart, the Universe must keep a certain equilibrium of matter to space, and once out of balance, new hydrogen atoms form (from thin air, you might say), which eventually leads to new galaxies to keep that space/matter balance.
Although Calvino "played" with this idea, it is one of those discounted theories. In fact, was discounted in 1965, the same year Cosmicomics was published. That doesn't change the enjoyment of his unique treatment of it, though.
I am still quite under the spell of Calvino's ability to imagine such complicated ideas, to take readers with him while he mixes imagination with astrophysics. Indeed, I often wonder what an astrophysicist would think of this book. Would she harrumph at the absurdities? Or would she laugh out loud at the great romp that it is? Maybe even recommend it to her non-genius friends.
My hero, Calvino:
