Thursday, February 19, 2009
The New Yorker Reader: "The Daughters of the Moon," by Italo Calvino
Posted by Mark on Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Ah, the "previously untranslated story." This one is part of the series of metaphysics experiments collected between the covers of Cosmicomics, though it's easy to see why it was not published along with the rest of them. (Categorize "Daughters of the Moon" in the "scrap heap" species of the "previously untranslated story" phylum.) It's a shrill, uncharacteristically obvious allegory about consumerism — but, wow, what a marvelous shrill, obvious allegory this is. It is kind of depressing, to realize how much offhand invention, lyricism and transcendental ideas about time Calvino was able to consign to the desk drawer. If I ever came up with an image as good as a new, verdant moon rising up from the East River, I would spend my entire life trying to fit it into a story worthy of it.
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