Week Thirteen Readings for Literary Speculation

The Distance from the Moon, is the first story of the collection ‘Cosmicomics’. Calvino starts with the scientific fact that the Moon was very close to the Earth. Then the tides gradually pushed her far away: the tides that the Moon herself causes in the Earth's waters, where the Earth slowly loses energy. But the story leads to fantastic and romantic way, the moon used to be closer to the earth, and from it creates a love story set in a time when the moon was close enough that people could reach it via a ladder. “The tides, when the Moon swung closer, rose so high nobody could hold them back. There were nights when the Moon was full and very, very low, and the tide was so high that the Moon missed a ducking in the sea by a hair's-breadth.” I know that all that is lie but I want to believe in my heart. When reading the story, I imagine that I sail to the very very full moon almost touching the tidal surface by small rowboat, climb to the moon and scoop the moon milk.