“... or else we contemplated the stars beyond the Moon, big as pieces of fruit, made of light, ripened on the curved branches of the sky, and everything exceeded my most luminous hopes ...” StarsSpaceProseShort StoryCosmicScifiDreamyWhimsicalFanciful Book:Cosmicomics Source: Cosmicomics
“If the ancients had been able to see it as I see it now, Mr. Palomar thinks, they would have thought they had projected their gaze into the heaven of Plato's ideas, or in the immaterial space of the postulates of Euclid; but instead, thanks to some misdirection or other, this sight has been granted to me, who fear it is too beautiful to be true, too gratifying to my imaginary universe to belong to the real world. But perhaps it is this same distrust of our senses that prevents us from feeling comfortable in the universe. Perhaps the first rule I must impose on myself is this: stick to what I see.” LiteratureStarsSpacePerceptionPlatoCalvino Book:Mr Palomar Source: Mr Palomar
“...And meanwhile the Galaxy ran through space and left behind those signs old and new and I still hadn't found mine.” TimeSpaceMarkExistentialGalaxySigns Book:Cosmicomics Source: Cosmicomics
“If one wanted to depict the whole thing graphically, every episode, with its climax, would require a three-dimensional, or, rather, no model: every experience is unrepeatable. What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.” IfsDifferentWholeWantedThreeReadingSexSpaceModelsEpisodesTime And SpaceClimax Book:If On A Winter's Night A Traveller Source: If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
“To fly is the opposite of traveling: you cross a gap in space, you vanish into the void, you accept not being in a place for a duration that is itself a kind of void in time; then you reappear, in a place and in a moment with no relation to the where and when in which you vanished.” KindMomentsSpaceAcceptingCrossesOppositesRelationGapsVoidDuration Author:Italo Calvino
“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.” IfsWayGivingFirstsTwoTogetherFormSufferingEasySpaceAcceptingDemandConstantEndureMidstTwo WaysApprehensionVigilanceInfernoBeing TogetherLive Every Day Author:Italo Calvino
“Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness, I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space. I don't mean escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification.” ThinkingWorldShouldBelieveLooksMeanDifferentDreamSeemsHumanityI BelieveSpaceCryPerspectiveBattleApproachLogicMethodIrrationalEscapingCognitionDifferent PerspectiveWholeheartedlyHeavinessVerificationBattle CryPerseus Author:Italo Calvino
“seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space” GivingSpaceEndureMidstInferno Book:Italo Calvino: Letters, 1941-1985 Source: Italo Calvino: Letters, 1941-1985
“Something must always remain that eludes us ... For power to have an object on which it can be exercised, a space in which to stretch out its arms ... As long as I know there exists in the world someone who does tricks only for the love of the trick, as long as I know there is a woman who loves reading for reading's sake, I can convince myself that the world continues ... And every evening I, too, abandon myself to reading, like that distant unknown woman.” KnowsWorldLongDoeI CanReadingSpaceObjectsArmsSakeTricksEveningConvinceAbandonEludeLove Of ReadingElude Us Author:Italo Calvino
“Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to perform, and in what order and rhythm; or else someone's gaze, answer, gesture is enough; it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment, all spaces change, all heights, distances; the city is transfigured, becomes crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly.” EnoughMomentsActionLyingOrderSpeakSpaceAnswersPleasureCitiesKnowingDistanceRhythmHeightThat MomentGesturesSheerTransparentDragonflies Author:Italo Calvino
