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Phase 01
Students were asked to write a two-to-three paragraph synopsis for each of the three short stories read. The following texts are based off of the short stories I read. Each set of paragraphs describes the events of each story and important details.
"The Distance of the Moon"
A narration from the character Qfwfq as he describes the distance that the Moon and Earth once maintained. The story begins with a reference to Sir George H. Darwin, and then leads to the narrator’s descriptions of the moon. He refers to it as, “enormous... immense... so strong that she pulled you up.” The author Italo Calvino articulates Qfwfq’s words even more with descriptive language of how it feels to be pulled from the Earth’s attraction towards the Moon. This ties into the “job” that Qfwfq explains as collecting moon-milk with fellow sailors by hoisting themselves towards the Moon until you were “hanging like a bunch of grapes from the vine.”
Characters like Little Xlthlx, Mr. And Mrs. Vhd Vhd and Qfwfq’s cousin, who is referred to as “the Deaf one,” are mentioned throughout the rest of the story. While the narrator’s cousin is not named, he is acknowledged due to his ability to swiftly reach the Moon. He is also described to be delighted by the Moon when it is both near and far. His character gives off the impression that he is superior to Qfwfq in some way. Following this, Qfwfq starts to discover his love for the Captain’s wife, Mrs. Vhd Vhd, when they are on the job one day. The Captain’s wife made appearances and would play her harp while they worked, and Qfwfq was enchanted by her the more she was around. He made attempts to be with her alone, but they had never worked.
One day while Qfwfq’s cousin harvesting milk, the Captain’s wife decides to join him. At this point, Qfwfq could already tell that she had eyes for his cousin. At that instant Qfwfq decided to jump off of the boat towards them in an effort to still be near Mrs. Vhd Vhd. This causes the ship to get farther away from the moon, leaving Mrs. Vhd Vhd and Qfwfq alone on the moon together. Being together made him realize how he never really loved Mrs. Vhd Vhd. He also describes how sad and empty Mrs. Vhd Vhd looks because of his cousin. She realized that “the Deaf one” would never love her. Instead, he would love and admire the moon each time he was near it. After waiting for a month, Qfwfq doesn’t hesitate to leave the moon and jumps onto the boat. Mrs. Vhd Vhd doesn’t follow him. Instead, she is seen there sadly with her harp by herself on the moon.
"A Sign in Space"
In another relation to space, this tale is told once again by Qfwfq as he goes about the rotary cycle of the solar system. At the beginning he describes how nothing appears “out of the ordinary,” in space. Everything is the same, and there is nothing distinguishable or noticeably different. Any being or individual would not know where they are going in space. Qfwfq notes how someone would never know where they are, how far they've been traveling, or if they've made a full rotational cycle. He then creates his own sign in order to tell when he has gone through a full cycle as well.
Qfwfq gains pride in making the first sign within space. Throughout the story he treats the sign as if it represents him, and it becomes all he can think about. While the cycle progresses, he slowly begins to lose complete memory of what the sign looked like in detail. Qfwfq’s excitement to see his sign grows until he finds that it was removed and placed with a new sign.
The narrator suspects that other individuals going by “Kgwgk,” sought to create their own version of the sign. Little by little more and more signs begin to appear around the same area, each one looking similar but not exactly like the original. Qfwfq continues to go back at the end of the planet cycles in effort to identify his own sign, which constantly causes stress for him. He felt a large amount of pride in making the first sign since it was a production of his that was unique at this time. However, instead of leaving behind any traces or indications of his existence, Qfwfq’s sign is lost amidst the many replicas and copies that were created.
"The Light-Years"
While an individual delves in to their experience of this story, there is no clear indication of who it is about. The narrator discusses how he takes time in looking out from his telescope some days, and then explains how one day he saw a sign in the sky. The first sign that he sees entails “I SAW YOU,” written across it. In order to make sense of the sign, the narrator does the calculations of the time the sign may have been sent, and what he could have been doing that day. From here the story leads into the many thoughts and questions going on in the speaker’s mind.
What did they see? How many times have other galaxies witnessed me? What consequences could be held from their perspectives? These were general ideas of what goes through his head the narrator contemplates how to respond and receive answers from the sign. He assumes that he was trying to hide something at one point, and it was possible that someone saw him doing that. There was no clue as to what he did or what they saw, but the narrator sends signs back to other galaxies. While time goes by, he sends more signs in response to the new ones he continues to see.
After waiting several light years, he finally gets a response from the first sign he’d received. Initially there was a sense of mysteriousness in terms of what others possibly knew about the narrator. Once he receives his first response and more afterwards, the speaker comes to the conclusion that some signs had been mixed up along the way. Being met with jumbles of different messages from signs left the narrator with a sense of relief towards the end of the story. Overall, he hoped that more individuals would find their way to his signs too.
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