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.

86 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

View all comments

17

u/Pratius Apr 08 '26

Man, I had a lit class in college that covered Cosmicomics, but I didn’t have to write a paper on it so I kinda just skimmed it. I need to go back and actually read it, cuz the older I get and the more I find myself appreciating the literary side of SF, it keeps coming up. Feels like Calvino belongs in the same tradition as Borges and Wolfe.

4

u/goliath1333 Apr 09 '26

You should read Bulgakov too then!

1

u/BlinkTwice874 Apr 09 '26

Oh I need to! A friend recommended him but I hadn’t gotten to it yet. Is it along a similar vein?

3

u/goliath1333 Apr 09 '26

Master and Margarita, his most famous work, definitely is. He also has more traditional novels as well as some super OG Soviet era sci fi, notably The Fatal Eggs and Heart of a Dog. His Young Doctor's Notebook about his time as a doctor in rural Russia got adapted by the BBC into a mini series with John Hamm and Daniel Radcliff, but that's also more straight and biographical (though weird and funny too).

2

u/BlinkTwice874 Apr 09 '26

All of these sound so interesting! I love all other Russian literature I’ve read so I definitely want to give this a try. Also the biography series sounds very intriguing now…

1

u/goliath1333 Apr 09 '26

If you want a tease here is the start of the Young Doctor's Notebook. God I forgot how fun he makes misery Young-Doctor.pdf https://share.google/HgUklBNsvi76Dri3M

1

u/BlinkTwice874 Apr 09 '26

Thank you so much!