Week 13: Literary Speculation

This week I read The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino. The setting takes place in a time when the moon was so close to the earth that visiting was a daily occurrence. In the short story's opening paragraphs the narrator recalls everything with a childlike joy, remembering how fun it was when they were able to shift themselves to the moon's gravitational pull, and collecting moon milk which was thick resembling cream cheese. The narrator even recalls when a young girl was caught in the moons gravity and got covered with little surface sea life. Throughout all these scenes, the intrigues of the human heart are consistent: jealousy, infatuation, and infidelity. Seems as though the more things are different, the more they really are the same. The main point of the story seems to be the moon pulling away from the earth and how hard it becomes for everyone to get back safely, one of which isn't able to return (the captains wife). The infatuation the main character has for the captains wife keeps him waiting for a month to pass so he can finally save her and bring her back to earth. Calvino definitely evokes nostalgia; the narrator looks back on his experiences with the moon and treasures them. I very much enjoyed reading this because it was a different type of love story, and one that doesn't have a happy ending. I think Calvino wasn't trying to recreate an adventure story, but instead allow the reader to look at universal experiences and emotions in a different perspective.