alafere.blogg.se - The distance of the moon italo calvino

“The Distance of the Moon” begins with the fact that the Moon’s orbit is gradually moving farther away from the Earth in an interesting phenomenon of reciprocal cause-and-effect, this change is actually a result of the tides, which are themselves caused by the Moon’s gravitational force acting upon the Earth. Each story begins with a short nonfiction portion, as if invoking a Muse, before diving into the realm of imagination. The original set of twelve was first published in 1965, just four years before the Moon landing. “The Distance of the Moon” is perhaps Calvino’s most well-known story from Cosmicomics, a set of whimsical stories chronicling a history of the cosmos loosely based on scientific facts. Italo Calvino, however, uses the moon and other celestial bodies playfully in his short story collection Cosmicomics. The Moon is always shifting through its cycles yet always present and the same it serves us as a source of light but is actually reflecting that light from somewhere else every once in a while, an eclipse renders it strange meanwhile, it has a side that always stays hidden, with an air of mystery almost always categorized as feminine. It seems almost too easy a way to summon cyclicality, illumination, mystery, and even romanticism. Short Take: Wandering Son, Vols.It can sometimes feel like a poetic cliché to even look at the Moon.Short Take: "The Enormous Radio," John Cheever.Short Take: "The Country Husband," John Cheever.Short Take: "Shadowplay: The Secret Team," Alan Mo.Short Take: "The Swimmer," John Cheever.Short Take: The Gospel According to St.Short Take: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins.

Short Take: "The Five Forty-Eight," John Cheever.

Short Take: "The Distance of the Moon," Italo Calvino.

Short Take: Songs from the Second Floor.

The sprightliness of Calvino's prose, translated into English by William Weaver, is the icing on this cake of fresh imagination. The reader is instead made to look at universal emotions and experiences in a new way. The exotic setting isn't used to spice up tired adventure-story conventions. The story is science-fiction fantasy at its best. It's one that will always have a place in his heart. And finally, Calvino evokes nostalgia: the narrator looks back on his experiences with the moon as a treasured time. Calvino takes the opportunity to evoke the wistfulness of being homesick, as well as the thwarted passions of lovers who are now rather literally star-crossed. Not everyone makes it-at least not at first. At this point, the story shifts somewhat into suspense narrative, as getting people away from the moon's surface and back to earth becomes the overriding concern. But the centerpiece of the story is the moon's ultimate pulling away from its proximity to the earth. The more things are different, it seems, the more they remain the same. But for all these scenes of almost magical wonder, the intrigues of the human heart are a constant: infatuations, jealousies, and infidelities. The narrator also relates the hilarious spectacle of a young girl finding herself caught in the moon's gravity, and getting covered with small surface sea life that was caught as well. The reader is caught up in the fun of shifting oneself to the moon's gravitational pull, and the slapstick travails of gathering the cheese. The story's opening passages have the narrator relating everything with a sense of childlike joy. For some it's even part of their livelihood: the moon is the source of lunar cheese, which can be refined into a delicacy.

The setting is a time when the moon was so close to the earth that visiting its surface was a daily occurrence. It's built around a clever fantasy conceit, which Calvino plays out beautifully. Italo Calvino's "The Distance of the Moon," the opening piece in his 1965 Cosmicomics collection, is a gem of a short story.