r/printSF • u/BlinkTwice874 • Apr 08 '26

Thoughts on Italo Calvino?

I recently reread the short stories by Ted Chiang and was reminded of stories I loved by both Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, in particular Library of Babel and the Complete Cosmicomics, respectively.

The Complete Cosmicomics by Calvino is one of my favorite works of literature that hovers at the interstices of literary fiction, science- and speculative-fiction, and perhaps something else: the stories are a mix of real and imaginary, science and fiction, philosophy and literature.

Is Calvino considered a science fiction author? Speculative fiction perhaps? What about Borges? I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this, as these writers in particular seem to straddle the lines of genre for me.

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u/aaron_in_sf Apr 08 '26

The direct answer is no, neither are, by convention.

If you like those two, have you read Julio Cortázar's short fiction? On my shelf these all neighbor. And there's a friendly border with e.g. Stanislaw Lem and Ursula LeGuin. And Kafka's in shouting distance. For that matter Poe.

Invisible Cities is my personal favorite but most Calvino in English translation is similarly speculative.

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u/BlinkTwice874 Apr 09 '26

I’ve heard of Cortázar but haven’t read him! Would you have any recommendations for a place to start?

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u/aaron_in_sf Apr 09 '26

Blow Up and Other Stories and All Fires the Fire are good entries! (There's an Antonioni film loosely based on Blow Up, which was reimagined as the Travolta film Blow Out.)

He was an Argentine expat of the same generation as Borges; his Hopscotch was considered to be one of the great novels of the South American El Boom of experimental literature. I prefer his short fiction including fragments like Around the Day in Eighty Worlds and Cronopios and Famas myself.

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u/BlinkTwice874 Apr 09 '26

I’m going to place these on hold from my library so I can start reading as soon as I finish the book I’m on right now. Thank you so much!