Literary Sepeculation

 Required Reading:
 

"The distance of the Moon", "At Daybreak", "A sign in space", and "Without color", are all short stories in Italo Calvino's collection, Cosmicomics. 

These stories are built around scientific "facts" of the time the stories were written. The character, Qfwfq, narrates each tale in a witty, polite, fanciful tone. Calvino describes events in the history of the universe that can only be guessed at in such an imaginative, playful, and lyrical way, that his writing seems almost poetic. 

Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics collection seems to hold so much more than regular science fiction. It would be too limiting to label his work science fiction. This is because, no matter how witty and pretty Calvino's words roll off the tongue they also signify deeper aspects of human relationships. 

For example, in "The distance of the Moon" Calvino's illustrates three character's hopelessly lost in unrequited love for each other. The captain's wife, Mrs. Vhd Vhd, is in love with the Deaf One, cousin of the narrator Qfwfq, but Qfwfq is in love with Mrs. Vhd Vhd. Meanwhile the Deaf One is unaware of Mrs. Vhd Vhd's love for him as he is head over heals for the moon. Desperate actions occur and Ofwfq is stuck on the moon with Mrs. Vhd Vhd. This is where Calvino slips in human relationships in a sly twist. 

 Mrs. Vhd Vhd, although alone with Qfwfq on the moon for a month, is only thinking of the Deaf One and how if she were more like the moon he may then love her. The month ends and the Death One returns to push the moon further away from the earth. Qfwfq realizes this is his last chance to return to earth and leaves Mrs. Vhd Vhd behind without a second glance, understanding she is forever beyond his reach, now quite literally. It is revealed that the reasoning for
Mrs. Vhd Vhd's decision to stay behind on the moon is that she felt this was the only way to stay connected to the Deaf One.

 "It was only at this moment that she proved her passion for the deaf man hadn't been a frivolous whim but an irrevocable vow. If what my cousin now loved was the distant Moon, then she too would remain distant, on the Moon."

Calvino used elements of the science fiction genre only in that his work holds science and the spectacle of space inside it. Truly his work is evaluating different aspects of the human condition through relationships. His use of science is as a metaphor or symbol that the reader can then use to understand the underlying message. For example in "Without color", the science is that without atmosphere, ultraviolet light makes Earth a dull gray color. When the Earth's atmosphere changed so did the the gray color, which became what we know today. This parallels the story's conflict, in which Qfwfq falls in love with Ayl, a person or creature who can only abide the dull grey provided by ultraviolet light. In the end Qfwfq and Ayl are forever separated by this dilemma as
Qfwfq realizes,

"So false, so much in contrast with Ayl's person, with Ayl's world, with Ayl's idea of beauty, that I realized her place could never have been out here." 

 

It could be argued that this story devoid of all science and fanciful flare is about a loving relationship that soured after something outside the two people in question was irrevocably changed, a relationship with a conclusion forced by external forces. 

In the case of Calvino's Cosmicomics the distinction between writing in genre and writing that uses elements of genre but is literary is important. So much would be lost out of Calvino's work if it were read as a simple science fiction thrill.
 


Required Movie: 

Existenz (1999) director: David Cronenberg

 

It's hard to talk about eXistenZ without ruining its plot and its mind twisting effect, so I will be talking mostly about its message. 

As can be seen in the above still shots of eXistenZ, the future holds organic virtual reality gaming consoles or "game pods" that can be physically linked to the the gamers' neurological pathways creating a gaming experience like no other. All of the senses can be accessed in the game making the game universe more realistic and if played in a group the group can decide what their character and plot will be based on a compilation of the groups desires. It is a gamers' dream come true.

However, things that usually seem too good to be true often are and this new gaming device has one very controversial problem linked with it. It is so realistic that gamers often unplug and cannot tell whether the reality they are in is the real world or not. This question of reality verses a virtual world that mimics reality almost perfectly is the main point of conflict throughout the movie. When has the virtual world encroached too far into everyday life and how do you stop it when it does?