Cosmicomics
by Italo Calvino

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Book Reviews of Cosmicomics

Book Review: A General Thickness of Signs
Summary: 5 Stars

"In the universe now there was no longer a container and a thing contained, but only a general thickness of signs superimposed..., occupying the whole volume of space." (Calvino 36 ).

Qfwfq, a palindromic non-entity who is actually all entities at once; a point (43), a thought (63), a dinosaur (97), a fish's nephew (71), a god (31), a beam of light flying through space (115); transcends the role of character, becoming a signifier for sentience itself. By abstracting character interaction against the empty landscape of the universe before time and before humankind, Calvino heightens the readers awareness of themselves as gods, as creators of the worlds of meaning that surround them. Qfwfq becomes representative of all inner contemplation, and therefore of sentient awareness as a whole.

All of Calvino's characters reflect this ever-present sentience. Uncle N'ba N'ga, for instance, is specifically identified as of the family Coelacanthus (71) which is a rare type of lungfish that was thought to have gone extinct 65 million years ago but was then discovered off the coast of Madagascar in 1918. The uncle, like Qfwfq, represents the ever presence of sentient life as an idea that transcends its earthly form, defeating even extinction. Sentience is something that exists perpetually, before, after and during the universe, collecting hydrogen atoms as easily as catching a train to Paris. It creates reality around it by introspection, marking points in itself, identifying meaning in itself, and projecting that meaning outward. The universe is therefore created by life's contemplation of itself and its environment.

Thus we are shown to be gods spinning away through time desperately trying to leave marks to prove we exist (31), to rejoin with the disparate souls from the original point (43), falling forever through time parallel to, but never touching, the object of our desire (115). By marking the universe with our thoughts of it we create it. Because we go on forever as humans and lizards and stars, we can only identify ourselves and our world by the marks we leave, which become so thick over time that we assume them to be reality

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