Saturday, July 20, 2013

Saturday Video: Italo Calvino's short story "The Distance of the Moon"

by Salman Hameed

For your trippy Saturday experience, here is an interesting choice of animation for Italo Calvino's short story, The Distance of the Moon [about 8 minutes long] (tip from Open Culture). This is one of the stories from his collection, Cosmicomics. The basic premise of the Moon being closer to the Earth soon after its formation is actually scientifically correct (though definitely not as close as it is in the story :)). The Moon is indeed moving away from us every year, but an incredibly slow pace of an inch and a half per year. No need to worry about losing the Moon soon. In any case, enjoy the story:


You can also listen to the full story in the voice of Liev Schreiber (an alum of Hampshire College!) on Radiolab (about 40 minutes long):

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