NATURE|Vol 460|16 July 2009 OPINION In Retrospect: Calvino’s Cosmicomics The soaring imagination of the Italian author abounds in a new compilation of his cosmic fables. Mostly written in the age of the space race, they are heavily informed by science, finds Alan Lightman. In one of the stories in Italo Calvino’s The ‘As Long as the Sun Lasts’, Qfwfq’s grandparents Complete Cosmicomics, the inimitable char- trade insults about which stars to set up camp acter named Qfwfq is gambling with Dean (k) near: “And why not the other one? The bigger PENGUIN yK in the nothingness before time and space they are, the more I trust them.” “Are you mad, began. “I don’t want to boast,” announces don’t you know what that is? Don’t you know Qfwfq, “but from the start I was willing to bet about the blue ones? They burn so fast, you there was going to be a universe, and I hit the don’t even notice, and barely a couple of thou- nail on the head … We were always gambling, sand millennia go by and you’ve already got to the Dean and I, because there was really noth- start packing.” Colloquialisms nestle happily ing else to do, and also because the only proof with scientific terminology. I existed was that I bet with him, and the only We never know who these cosmic supermen proof he existed was that he bet with me.” are, where they came from, or how they got to Wildly inventive, philosophical and play- be where they are. In Cosmicomics, there are no ful at once, addicted to sustained metaphors, houses and chairs, no roads or cars, no banks Calvino is almost unique in his fictions. One or telephones, no Berlin or London. There is no might compare him to José Saramago or Jorge human civilization at all. Yet we do meet intel- Luis Borges, but few others. In Calvino’s daz- ligent beings, even families and lovers, attempt- zling Invisible Cities, the explorer Marco Polo ing to make sense of life in its most elemental reports to Genghis Khan about each of the form. It seems that Calvino is attempting to marvellous cities in the Khan’s empire, the fathom how much of a reality can be created descriptions exquisite in their crystalline prose. without familiar geography of time and space. In The Baron in the Trees, a man lives among He plays with science the way a found-object the leaves and branches of trees, viewing the artist throws together bits of silvered glass, odd world from far above the ground. metal brackets, bits of coloured paper. The Complete Cosmicomics combines several Colloquialisms nestle happily with scientific It is impossible not to compare Calvino to earlier works: Cosmicomics (1968) and Time terminology in Calvino’s playful approach. another of his Italian countrymen, Primo Levi. and the Hunter (1969), both translated by Both wrote imaginative fiction inspired by sci- William Weaver; four stories from Numbers with the other man, a moustachioed lieutenant. ence. Calvino’s Complete Cosmicomics is more in the Dark (1995), translated by Tim Parks; In another, the main character is a mollusc: “I fanciful and playful than Levi’s Periodic Table. and seven tales from World Memory and Other try to persuade myself that the two holes I had Levi’s characters in the latter are far richer. Cosmicomic Stories (1968), newly translated by were a mouth and an anus … Every now and The most interesting of Calvino’s fables, in my Martin McLaughlin. then, I was seized by fantasies, that’s true, for opinion, are the ones with human drama. The Most of these stories were written between example, the notion of scratching my armpit, least interesting are those in which the author 1963 and 1968, in the heat of the space race or crossing my legs, or once even growing a goes into long pedagogical riffs on science or between the United States and the Soviet moustache.” indulges in pages of philosophical reflection. Union. They are heavily informed by sci- Many of the stories concern cosmic beings When Calvino brings together human drama ence, especially astronomy and cosmology who offer witty commentary on the formation with his imaginative scenarios, and philosophy but also evolution and cell biology. In one of of the Universe and have the wondrous capac- with his beautiful language, humour and wit, the yarns, for exam- ity to casually wander he is unparallelled. ple, the protagonist The Complete Cosmicomics across time and space. In the story titled ‘World Memory’, an is an ageing dinosaur by Italo Calvino They exist in the cush- organization is entrusted with the job of stor- who has somehow Translated by William Weaver, Tim Parks iony folds of cosmic ing all of the world’s knowledge and culture in survived the extinc- and Martin McLaughlin nebulae, or in empty the face of an impending cataclysm. “The duty tion of his species Penguin Classics: 2009. 304 pp. £20 space, or falling in the of the director is to make sure that nothing is and hides out, like a gravitational pull of left out, because what is left out is as if it had war criminal, in a tribe of descendant reptil- distant galaxies. Calvino makes no attempt to never been.” Fortunately for future generations ians called ‘New Ones’. The interloper is, by be logically consistent or scientifically plausi- of world civilization, Calvino has been, and he turns, embarrassed, secretive, defensive and ble, and herein arises much of the humour and will certainly not be left out. ■ finally indignant about his origins, falling in charm of the book. Molluscs imagine armpits, Alan Lightman is a physicist, writer and adjunct love and then being rejected by one of the new cold exists before the Universe existed, people professor of humanities at the Massachusetts females. In another tale, two men and a woman climb ladders and jump on to the Moon. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, fall through empty space for untold centuries, In ‘At Daybreak’ a squabbling family stum- Massachusetts 02139, USA. His forthcoming the narrator attempting to steer his trajectory bles across “pinnacles, spires, and battlements” book, the narrative poem Song of Two Worlds, will closer to the woman and imagining a rivalry of condensing gas in a new-formed nebula. In be published in October 2009. 329 © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.