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how you by. Hello!

0:32

Mrs. Radio Lab and Lula Miller.

0:35

Ah, and even though the Solar Eclipse

0:38

is a couple weeks in our wake,

0:40

as is our big show all About

0:42

the moon, it turns out we're not

0:44

quite done waxing poetic about the moon.

0:47

We've gotta. We've got one more little

0:49

piece we'd love to play for you.

0:51

It comes from the archives and it

0:53

is truly one of the most. Delicious.

0:57

Imaginative looks at the moon.

1:00

I've ever heard. This. Version

1:02

of the story comes from a

1:04

night of live storytelling hosted by

1:07

Job and Robert for the program

1:09

selected Shorts which is a lovely

1:11

series that's been around for a

1:13

long time Ah, that basically get

1:16

fancy actors to read really good

1:18

short stories with a lot of

1:20

fun and so yeah, I'm gonna

1:22

just zap you over to New

1:25

York City to the Eu Symphony

1:27

Space where Jad and Robert are

1:29

just taking. The. Stage. Where

1:32

you have. Your

1:39

than listening to radio Lab. Radio

1:42

from really W and Weiss

1:44

hey. Why?

1:51

There. Is a theory, but twenty five

1:53

years old. Now that explains how the

1:55

earth got a moon. And

1:57

the goes like this show about. Work.

2:00

And a half billion years ago. The

2:03

earth was no fresh new planet was

2:05

going around the sun and the solar

2:07

system wasn't having a sort of a

2:09

fiery sort of chaotic creative and due

2:11

to the mix very large planets weight

2:14

but the size of mars kind of

2:16

went rogue and began popping around and

2:18

there was a seat on collision between

2:20

the earth and this planets and the

2:22

to went. Under the

2:25

incoming once melted much as the

2:27

earth the earth become sort of

2:29

vaporous and everything ami earth just

2:31

went to gas and sort. Of

2:33

flew up. Many earth's became sort of

2:35

an unsolved for a while when it

2:37

cools the earth cel back into place

2:40

and there was this extra things very

2:42

very close by that we called the

2:44

moon But ever since that that moment

2:47

these two sulistyo or the earth and

2:49

the moon have been very gradually very

2:51

very slowly drifting away from each other

2:53

at a rate of and such things

2:56

one nano meters per second. To

2:58

none a lot but to suppress impractical sort

3:01

of the mountains of but the speed that

3:03

your fingernails grill ah but imagine you signals

3:05

going to four and half billion years and

3:08

got a long fingernail yes and or other

3:10

of further away. So this is a story

3:12

semi follow cal venal and just doing the

3:14

fm radio overpay doesn't know how he really

3:17

since he's a cuban born rider can move

3:19

to Italy grew up there a spot the

3:21

nazis for the and will work to read

3:23

book about that than what many other books

3:26

at among them he created a series of

3:28

stories called. Cosmic Comics. They

3:30

are mostly of the same

3:32

map narrator, a mysterious character

3:35

called. With.

3:38

Him. To.

3:42

Having all the base backstage

3:44

Madison that stuff you spell

3:47

it to F W Sq

3:49

Catholic. Priests

3:51

with with. tell

3:53

you have wait for it i am

3:55

him maybe it'll come out and i

3:58

wanted us so this is this fellow

4:00

he's very easy he told stories uh...

4:02

it it it this is included the

4:04

origin of the universe the beginning of

4:06

time so uh... and i think it

4:08

will be read for you today by

4:10

an incredible actor director producer screenwriter and

4:12

amen who for the last decade

4:15

would you say has been

4:17

uh... robert's unrequited boy crush it's

4:21

not one-sided bromance it's not it's not like sexually

4:23

things just like that it is it is a

4:25

thing uh... i

4:30

uh... now

4:32

at this moment he just pops out leah comes

4:34

out onto the stage and hands me this little

4:36

piece of paper they're pretending like he's handing robert

4:38

his phone number but nothing on it though i

4:44

was watching a play once this was many years ago

4:46

called don't look back there was an actor in it

4:49

named jane alexander just amazing act and she walked onto

4:51

the stage in this play and she

4:53

just dropped some luggage on

4:55

the stage and looked around and

4:59

in that moment she hadn't said anything yet there

5:02

was like uh... there was a history there uh...

5:05

uh... there was so much information before there

5:07

was any sound i never thought

5:09

that again until a few years ago in

5:12

a view from the bridge bev shryber was

5:14

uh... along shryber he was just sitting the

5:17

play begins there's a guy sitting in a

5:19

chair reading a newspaper

5:22

i think he turned a page and

5:25

so i'm sitting there and i'm seeing an

5:30

entire universe of a person i

5:33

don't know how he did it uh...

5:36

you may know his work from glen gary gimbal

5:38

so the mama plays and his own tv and

5:41

i simply think he's this is the

5:43

question i think he's like the best living no

5:51

no pressure or anything but

5:54

yeah he had to say p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p uh...

5:58

it is a tall order here he is read

6:00

Italo Calvino's The Distance of the

6:02

Moon, Liev Schreiber. The

6:21

Distance of the Moon by Italo

6:23

Calvino. At one

6:25

time, according to Sir George H. Darwin,

6:28

the moon was very close to the earth. Then

6:31

the tides gradually pushed her far away.

6:34

The tides that the moon herself causes

6:36

in the earth's waters, where

6:38

the earth slowly loses energy. How

6:42

well I know, old crybe.

6:49

The rest of you can't remember, but I can. She

6:52

had her on top of us all the time,

6:54

that enormous moon. When

6:56

she was full, nights as bright as day,

6:58

but with a butter-colored life, it

7:01

looked as if she were going to crush us. When

7:03

she was new, she rolled around the sky like

7:05

a black umbrella blown by the wind. And

7:08

when she was waxing, she came forward with her

7:10

horns so low she seemed about to stick into

7:13

the peak of a pomatory and get caught there.

7:17

But the whole business of the moon's phases

7:19

worked in a different way then, because the

7:21

distances from the sun were different, and the

7:23

orbits and the angle of something, or rather,

7:26

I forget what. As

7:28

for eclipses, with earth and moon stuck

7:30

together the way they were, why we

7:32

had eclipses every minute. Naturally,

7:35

those two big monsters managed to put each

7:37

other in the shade constantly, first one, then

7:39

the other. Orbit?

7:42

Oh, elliptical, of course. For

7:44

a while, it would huddle against us, and then it

7:46

would take flight for a while. The

7:49

tides when the moon swung closer rose so

7:51

high nobody could hold them back. There

7:54

were nights when the moon was full and

7:56

very, very low, and the tide

7:58

was so high that the moon missed

8:00

a dunking in the sea by a hair's breadth.

8:03

Well, let's say a few yards anyway. Climb

8:06

up on the moon? Of course we did.

8:10

All you had to do was row out in a boat

8:12

when you were underneath, prop a ladder against her, and scramble

8:14

up. The

8:17

spot where the moon was lowest as she went

8:19

by was off the zinc cliffs. We

8:21

used to go out with those little rowboats they had

8:23

in those days round and flat, made of cork. They

8:26

held quite a few of us. Me,

8:28

Captain Vuh-Hizbuhd, his wife, my

8:31

deaf cousin, and sometimes little Ix-ul-lix.

8:35

She was 12 or so at the time. On

8:38

those nights, the water was very calm. So

8:41

silvery it looked like mercury. And

8:43

the fish in it, violet colored, unable

8:45

to resist the moon's attraction, rose

8:48

to the surface, all of them. And

8:50

so did the octopuses and the

8:52

saffron medusas. It

8:55

was always a flight of tiny creatures, little

8:57

crabs, squid, and even some weeds,

9:00

light and filmy and coral plants, that

9:03

broke from the sea and ended up on the moon, hanging

9:06

down from the lime white ceiling, or

9:09

else they stayed in midair, a phosphorescent

9:11

swarm we had to drive off

9:14

waving banana leaves at them. This

9:18

is how we did the job. In the

9:20

boat, we had a ladder. One

9:22

of us held it, another climbed to the top,

9:24

on the third at the oars, rode until we

9:26

were right under the moon. That's why there had

9:28

to be so many of us. I only mentioned

9:30

the main ones. The man

9:32

at the top of the ladder, as the boat

9:34

approached the moon, would become scared and start shouting,

9:36

stop, stop. I'm going to bang my head. That

9:40

was the impression you had, seeing her

9:42

on top of you, immense and all

9:44

rough, with sharp spikes and jagged sawtooth

9:47

edges. It may be different

9:49

now, but then the moon, or

9:51

rather the bottom or the

9:53

underbelly of the moon, the part that passed

9:55

closest to the Earth and almost scraped it,

9:58

was covered with a crust of sharp, scales.

10:01

It had come to resemble the belly of a fish, and

10:04

the smell too, as I recall, if not

10:06

downright fishy, was faintly similar,

10:09

like smoked salmon. In

10:13

reality, from the top of the ladder, standing erect

10:15

on the last rung, you could just touch the

10:17

moon if you held your arms up. We

10:20

had taken the measurements carefully. We didn't yet

10:22

suspect that she was moving away from us.

10:25

The only thing you had to be very careful about was

10:27

where you put your hands. I

10:29

always chose a scale that seemed fast.

10:32

We climbed up in groups of five

10:34

or six at a time. Then I

10:36

would cling first with one hand, then

10:38

with both, and immediately I would feel

10:40

ladder and boat drifting away from below

10:42

me, and the motion of the moon

10:44

would tear me from the Earth's attraction. Yes,

10:48

the moon was so strong that she pulled

10:50

you up. You

10:52

realized this the moment you passed from one

10:54

to the other. You had to swing up

10:57

abruptly with a kind of somersault, grabbing the

10:59

scales, throwing your legs over your head until

11:01

your feet were on the moon's surface. Seen

11:04

from the Earth, you looked as if you were

11:06

hanging there with your head down, but for you

11:08

it was the normal position, and then the only

11:10

odd thing was that when you raised your eyes,

11:12

you saw the sea above you, glistening, with

11:15

the boat and the others upside down, hanging like

11:17

a bunch of grapes from the vine. My

11:21

cousin, the death one, showed a

11:23

special talent for making those leaps. His

11:26

clumsy hands, as soon as they touched the lunar surface,

11:28

he was always the first to jump from the ladder,

11:31

suddenly became deft and sensitive.

11:33

They found immediately the spot where he could

11:35

hoist himself up. In fact,

11:38

just the pressure of his palm seemed enough

11:40

to make him stick to the satellite's crust.

11:43

Once I even thought I saw the moon come toward

11:45

him as he held out his hands. He

11:49

was just as dexterous and coming back

11:51

down to Earth, an operation still more

11:53

difficult. For us, it

11:55

consisted in jumping as high as we

11:57

could, our arms upraised, seen

11:59

from the moon that day. is because seen from the earth

12:01

it looked more like a dive or like swimming

12:03

downwards, arms at our sides. Like

12:06

jumping up from the earth, in other words, only

12:08

now we were without the ladder because there was

12:10

nothing to profit against on the moon. But

12:13

instead of jumping with his arms out, my cousin bent

12:15

toward the moon's surface, his head down as if for

12:17

a somersault, then made a leap,

12:19

pushing with his hands. From

12:22

the boat we watched him, erect

12:24

in the air as if he were supporting

12:26

the moon's enormous ball and were tossing it,

12:28

striking it with his palms. Then

12:31

when his legs came within reach, we managed to grab his

12:33

ankles and pull him down on board. Now

12:37

you will ask me what in the world we went up

12:39

on the moon for. I'll

12:42

explain it to you. We went

12:44

to collect milk with

12:47

a big spoon and a bucket. Moon

12:49

milk was very thick, like a kind

12:52

of cream cheese. It

12:57

formed in the crevices between one scale

12:59

and the next, through the fermentation of

13:01

various bodies and substances of terrestrial

13:03

origin which had flown up from the

13:05

prairies and forests and lakes as the

13:07

moon sailed over them. It

13:10

was composed chiefly of

13:13

vegetable juices, tadpoles, bicumen,

13:15

lentils, honey, starch crystals,

13:17

sturgeon eggs, molds, pollens,

13:19

gelatinous matter, worms, resins,

13:22

pepper, mineral salts, combustion

13:24

residue. You

13:26

had only to dip the spoon under the scales

13:28

that covered the moon's scabby terrain and you brought

13:31

it out filled with that precious muck. Not

13:34

in the pure state, obviously. There was

13:37

a lot of refuse in the fermentation which

13:39

took place as the moon passed over the

13:41

expanses of hot air above the deserts, not

13:43

all the bodies melted. Some

13:46

remained stuck in it, fingernails

13:49

and cartilage, bolts, seahorses, nuts and

13:51

peduncles, shards of crockery, fish hooks,

13:53

at times even a comb. So

13:58

this paste, after it was collected, was made in the had

14:00

to be refined, filtered. But

14:02

that wasn't the difficulty. The hard part was transporting

14:05

it down to the earth. This is how we

14:07

did it. We hurled each

14:09

spoonful into the air with both

14:11

hands using the spoon as a

14:13

catapult. The cheese

14:15

flew, and if we had thrown it hard

14:18

enough, it stuck to the ceiling. I

14:20

mean, the surface of the sea. Once

14:23

there, it floated, and it was easy enough to pull it into the

14:25

boat. In this operation, too,

14:27

my deaf cousin displayed a special gift.

14:30

He had a strength and a good aim. With

14:32

a single sharp throw, he could send the cheese

14:34

straight into a bucket we held up to him from the

14:36

boat. As

14:40

for me, I occasionally misfired. The

14:43

contents of the spoon would often fail to overcome the

14:45

moon's attraction and would fall back into my

14:48

eyes. I still haven't told

14:50

you everything about the things my cousin was good at. That

14:54

job of extracting lunar milk from the

14:56

moon's scales was child's play to him.

14:59

Instead of the spoon, at times, he had only to thrust

15:01

his bare hand under the scales or even one finger. He

15:06

didn't proceed in any orderly way, but went

15:08

to isolated places, jumping from one to the

15:10

other, as if he were playing tricks on

15:12

the moon, surprising her or

15:14

perhaps tickling her. And

15:16

wherever he put his hand, the milk spurted out

15:18

as if from a nanny goat's tits. So

15:21

the rest of us had only to follow him and collect

15:23

with our spoons the substance that he was pressing out.

15:26

First here, then there, but always as if by chance,

15:29

since the Death Ones' movements seem to have no clear,

15:31

practical sense. There

15:34

were places, for example, that he

15:36

touched merely for the fun of touching them. Gaps

15:39

between two scales, naked

15:42

and tender folds of lunar

15:44

flesh. At times,

15:46

my cousin pressed not only his fingers, but

15:49

in a carefully gauged leap, his big

15:52

toe. He climbed

15:54

onto the moon barefoot, and this seemed to be the height

15:56

of amusement for him. If we could

15:58

judge by the chirping sounds that came out of it, from his

16:00

throat as he went on leaping. The

16:04

soil of the moon was not uniformly

16:06

scaly, but revealed irregular bare patches of

16:09

pale, slippery clay. These

16:12

soft areas inspired the deaf one to turn

16:14

somersaults or to fly almost like a bird

16:16

as if he wanted to impress his whole

16:18

body into the moon's pulp. As

16:22

he ventured farther on his way, we lost sight of

16:24

him at one point. On

16:26

the moon there were vast areas we had

16:28

never had any reason or curiosity to explore,

16:30

and that was where

16:32

my cousin vanished. I

16:35

suspected all those somersaults and nudges

16:37

he indulged in before our eyes

16:39

were only a preparation, a

16:41

prelude to something secret meant to take

16:43

place in the hidden zone. We

16:47

fell into a special mood on those nights off

16:49

the zinc cliffs, gay but with

16:52

a touch of suspense as if

16:54

inside our skulls instead of the brain we

16:56

felt a fish floating, attracted

16:58

by the moon. And

17:01

so we navigated, playing and singing. The

17:04

captain's wife played the harp. She had

17:06

very long arms, silvery as eels, on

17:09

those nights and armpits as dark and

17:11

mysterious as sea urchins, and

17:13

the sound of the harp was sweet and piercing. So

17:16

sweet and piercing it was almost unbearable,

17:19

and we were forced to let out long cries not

17:23

so much to accompany the music as

17:25

to protect our hearing from it. We'll

17:28

be back in just a moment. Radiolab

17:34

is supported by the John Templeton

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Foundation, funding research and catalyzing conversations

17:39

that inspire people with awe and

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wonder. Learn about the

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18:43

Polls show there are more black people than

18:45

ever on Team Trump. I'm Kai Wright and

18:47

next time on Notes from America, a special

18:50

voter vibe check in partnership with our friends

18:52

at the podcast today explained. Is the polling

18:54

true? If so, what's behind it? Journalist Noelle

18:56

King and I will ask you to chime

18:59

in and we'll consider what it means for

19:01

all of us when black voters break the

19:03

tradition. On the next Notes from America. Listen

19:06

wherever you get your podcasts. Transparent

19:15

Medusas rose to the sea's surface,

19:17

throbbed there a moment then flew

19:19

off swaying toward the moon. Little

19:23

Lexelixx amused herself by

19:25

catching them in midair though it

19:27

wasn't easy. Once as

19:29

she stretched her little arms out to catch one,

19:31

she jumped up slightly and was also set free.

19:34

Then, thin as she was, she was an

19:36

ounce or two short of the weight necessary

19:38

for the earth's gravity to overcome the moon's

19:41

attraction and bring her back. So

19:43

she flew up among the Medusas suspended over

19:45

the sea. She took

19:47

fright, cried and laughed and started

19:49

playing catching shellfish and minnows as

19:52

they flew, sticking some into her mouth and

19:54

chewing them. We rode hard

19:56

to keep up with the child. The

19:58

moon ran off in her lips. dragging

20:00

that swarm of marine fauna through the

20:03

sky, and a train

20:05

of long-entwined seaweeds and

20:07

exolytics hanging there in the midst. Her

20:10

two wispy braids seemed to be flying on

20:12

their own, outstretched toward the

20:14

moon. But all the

20:16

while, she kept wriggling and kicking at the air

20:19

as if she wanted to fight that influence, and

20:21

her socks, she had lost her shoes in the flight, slipped

20:24

off her feet and swayed, attracted

20:26

by the Earth force. On

20:29

the latter, we tried to grab them. The

20:33

idea of eating little animals in the air had been a

20:35

good one. The more

20:37

weight exolytics gained, the more she sank

20:39

toward the Earth. In

20:42

fact, since among those hovering

20:45

bodies, hers was the largest mollusks

20:47

and seaweeds and plankton began to

20:49

gravitate about her. Soon,

20:52

the child was covered with

20:54

salicious little shells, chitinous carapaces,

20:57

and fibers of seaweeds. And

20:59

the farther she vanished into that tangle, the

21:02

more she was freed of the moon's influence

21:04

until she grazed the surface of the water and

21:06

sank into the sea. We

21:09

rode quickly to pull her out and save her. Her

21:12

body had remained magnetized, and we had to work

21:14

hard to scrape off all the things encrusted on

21:16

her. Tender corals were

21:18

round about her head, and every time we ran

21:21

the comb through her hair, there was a shower

21:23

of crayfish and sardines. Her

21:25

eyes were sealed shut by limpets clinging to

21:27

the lids with their suckers. Squids,

21:30

tentacles were coiled around her arms and

21:32

her neck, and her little dress now

21:34

seemed woven only of weeds and sponges.

21:38

We got the worst of it off her, but

21:40

for weeks afterwards, she went on pulling

21:42

out fins and shells, and her skin

21:44

dotted with little diatoms remained affected forever,

21:47

looking to someone who didn't observe her

21:49

carefully as if it were faintly

21:51

dusted with freckles. This

21:54

should give you an idea of how the

21:57

influences of Earth and Moon practically equal thought

21:59

over... the space between them. I'll

22:02

tell you something else. A body

22:04

that descended to the Earth from a satellite

22:07

was still charged for a while with lunar

22:09

force and rejected the attraction of our world.

22:12

Even I, big and heavy as I was, every time

22:14

I had been up there, I

22:16

took a while to get used to the Earth's ups

22:18

and its downs, and the others would have to grab

22:21

my arms and hold me, clinging in

22:23

a bunch in the swaying boat while I

22:25

still had my head hanging and my legs

22:27

stretching up towards the sky. "'Hold

22:30

on to us, hold on to us,' they shouted at

22:32

me, and in all that groping

22:34

sometimes I ended up by seizing one

22:36

of Mrs. Vahidvidvid's breasts, which

22:39

were round and firm, and the contact

22:41

was good and secure, and had an

22:44

attraction as strong as the moon's, or

22:46

even stronger, especially if I managed, as

22:48

I plunged down, to put my other

22:51

arm around her hips. And

22:53

with this I passed back into our world

22:55

and fell with a thud into the bottom

22:57

of the boat, where Captain Vahidvidvid brought me

22:59

around, throwing a bucket of water in

23:01

my face. This

23:04

is how the story of my love

23:06

for the captain's wife began, and

23:08

my suffering. Because

23:11

it didn't take me long to realize whom

23:13

the lady kept looking at insistently. When

23:15

my cousin's hands clasped the satellite,

23:17

I watched Mrs. Vahidvidvid end

23:20

in her eyes. I could read the thoughts that

23:23

the deaf man's familiarity with the moon

23:25

were arousing in her. And

23:28

when he disappeared in his mysterious lunar

23:30

explorations, I saw her become restless as

23:32

if on pins and needles. And

23:35

it was all clear to me how Mrs.

23:37

Vahidvid had become jealous of the moon, and

23:40

I was jealous of my cousin. Her

23:43

eyes were made of diamonds, Mrs.

23:45

Vahidvidvid's. They flared

23:48

when she looked at the moon almost

23:50

challengingly, as if she were saying, You

23:52

shan't have him. And

23:54

I felt like an outsider,

23:59

the one who who least understood all of this

24:01

was my deaf cousin. When

24:04

we helped him down, pulling him, as I explained to you,

24:06

by his legs, Mrs. Vahidvid lost

24:08

all her self-control, doing everything she

24:10

could to take his weight against

24:12

her own body, folding her long,

24:14

silvery arms around him. I

24:16

felt a pang in my heart. The

24:19

times I clung to her, her body was soft

24:21

and kind, but not thrust forward the way

24:23

it was with my cousin, while

24:25

he was indifferent, still lost, in his

24:27

lunar bliss. I

24:30

looked at the captain, wondering if he also

24:32

noticed his wife's behavior, but there was never

24:34

a trace of any expression on that face

24:36

of his eaten by brine marked with tarry

24:38

wrinkles. Since the death one

24:40

was always the last to break away from the moon,

24:42

his return was the signal for the boats to move

24:45

off. Then with an

24:47

unusually polite gesture, Vahidvidvid picked up the harp

24:49

from the bottom of the boat and handed

24:51

it to his wife. She

24:53

was obliged to take it and play a few notes. Everything

24:56

could separate her more from the death one than

24:58

the sound of the harp. I

25:01

took to singing in a low voice that

25:03

sad song that goes, Every

25:05

shiny fish is floating, floating,

25:08

and every dark fish is at the bottom, at

25:10

the bottom of the sea. And

25:13

all the others, except my cousin, echoed

25:15

my words. Every

25:18

month, once the satellite had moved on, the

25:20

death one returned to his solitary detachment from

25:22

the things of the world. After

25:25

the approach of the full moon aroused him again,

25:29

that time I had arranged things so it wasn't my turn

25:31

to go up. I could stay in the

25:33

boat with the captain's wife. But

25:35

then, as soon as my cousin had climbed the

25:38

ladder, Mrs. Vahidvid said, This time

25:40

I want to go up there too. This

25:43

had never happened before. The

25:45

captain's wife had never gone up on the moon. But

25:49

Vahidvid made no objection. In

25:52

fact, he almost pushed her up the ladder

25:54

bodily exclaiming, Go ahead then! And

25:58

we all started helping her. I held

26:00

her from behind and felt

26:03

her round and soft on

26:05

my arms and had

26:08

to hold her up. I began to press my face and

26:10

the palms of my hands against her. When

26:13

I felt her rising into the moon's sphere,

26:15

I was heart sick at that lost contact.

26:18

So I started to rush after her, saying, I'm

26:21

going to go up for a while too to

26:24

help out. As

26:27

I was held back as if in a vice, you

26:30

stay here, you have work to do later, the captain

26:32

commanded without raising his voice. At

26:35

that moment, each one's intentions were

26:37

already clear. And

26:39

yet I couldn't figure things out. Even

26:42

now, I'm not sure I've interpreted it all correctly.

26:45

Certainly the captain's wife had for a long time

26:48

been cherishing the desire to go off privately with

26:50

my cousin up there, or at least to prevent

26:52

him from going off alone with the moon. But

26:55

probably she had a still more ambitious

26:57

plan, one that would

27:00

have to be carried out in agreement with the death one.

27:03

She wanted the two of them to hide up there

27:05

together and stay on the moon for

27:07

a month. But

27:09

perhaps my cousin, death as he was, hadn't understood

27:11

anything of what she had tried to explain

27:13

to him. Or perhaps he

27:15

hadn't even realized that he was the object

27:18

of the lady's desires. And

27:21

the captain, he wanted nothing better

27:23

than to be rid of his wife. In

27:26

fact, as soon as she was confined up

27:28

there, we saw him give free reign to

27:30

his inclinations and plunge into vice. And

27:33

then we understood why he had done nothing to

27:35

hold her back. But

27:38

had he known from the beginning that

27:40

the moon's orbit was widening, none

27:43

of us could have suspected it. The

27:46

death one, perhaps, but only he, and

27:49

the shadowy way he knew things. He

27:52

may have had a pre-sentiment

27:54

that he would be forced to bid the moon

27:56

farewell that night. This

27:58

is why he hid in his secret place. and

28:00

reappeared only when it was time to come back

28:02

down on board. It

28:04

was no use for the captain's wife to try to follow him.

28:08

We saw her across the scaly zone

28:10

various times, length and breadth. Then suddenly

28:12

she stopped looking at us in the

28:14

boat, as if about to ask us

28:16

whether we had seen him. Surely

28:19

there was something strange about that night. The

28:22

sea's surface, instead of being taut as it was

28:24

during the full moon, even arched

28:26

a bit toward the sky, now seemed limp,

28:30

sagging as if the lunar magnet no

28:32

longer exercised its full power. And

28:35

the light, too, wasn't the same as the light

28:37

of other full moons. The

28:40

night's shadows seemed somehow to have thickened.

28:43

Our friends up there must have realized what was

28:45

happening. In fact, they looked up

28:47

at us with frightened eyes, and

28:49

from their mouths and ours at the same moment came

28:52

a cry, the moon's going

28:54

away. The

28:57

cry hadn't died out when my cousin appeared

28:59

on the moon, running. He

29:01

didn't seem frightened or even amazed. He

29:04

placed his hands on the terrain, flinging

29:06

himself into his usual somersault. But

29:09

this time, after he hurled himself into the air,

29:12

he remained suspended as little

29:14

Exalictic's head. He

29:16

hovered a moment between moon and earth upside down, and

29:19

then laboriously moving his arms like someone swimming

29:21

against a current, he headed

29:23

with unusual slowness toward our planet.

29:28

From the moon, the other sailors hastened to

29:30

follow his example. Nobody gave

29:32

a thought to getting the moon milk that had been collected

29:34

into the boats, nor did the

29:36

captain scold them for this. They had

29:38

already waited too long. The distance

29:40

was difficult to cross by now. When

29:43

they tried to imitate my cousin's leap

29:45

for his swimming, they remained there groping,

29:48

suspended in midair. Cling together, idiots! Cling

29:50

together! the captain yelled. At

29:52

this command, the sailors tried to form a group, a mass,

29:55

to push all together until they reached the zone

29:57

of the earth's attraction. All

30:00

of a sudden, a cascade of bodies

30:02

plunged into the sea with a loud

30:04

splash. The

30:06

boats were now rowing to pick them up.

30:08

Wait! The captain's wife is missing, I shouted.

30:11

The captain's wife had also tried to jump,

30:14

but she was still floating only a few

30:16

yards from the moon, slowly moving her long,

30:18

silvery arms in the air. I

30:21

climbed up the ladder, and in a vain attempt to

30:23

give her something to grasp, I held the harp out

30:25

toward her. I can't reach her. We

30:27

have to go after her. And I

30:29

started to jump up, brandishing the harp. Above

30:33

me, the enormous lunar disk no longer seemed

30:35

the same as before. It had

30:37

become much smaller. It kept

30:39

contracting, as if my gaze

30:41

were driving it away, and the emptied

30:43

sky gaped like an abyss where at

30:45

the bottom the stars had begun multiplying,

30:47

and the night poured a river of

30:50

emptiness over me, drowned me

30:52

in dizziness and alarm. I'm

30:55

afraid, I thought. I'm too

30:57

afraid to jump. I'm a coward. And

30:59

at that moment I jumped. I

31:02

swam furiously through the sky and held the

31:04

harp out to her. And

31:06

instead of coming toward me, she rolled

31:08

over and over, showing me first her

31:10

impassive face and then her backside.

31:14

Hold tight to me, I shouted, and

31:17

I was already overtaking her, entwining my limbs

31:19

with hers. If we cling together, we can

31:21

go down. I was

31:23

concentrating all my strength on uniting myself

31:25

more closely with her. And

31:27

I concentrated my sensations as I enjoyed

31:30

the fullness of that embrace. I

31:33

was so absorbed, I didn't realize at

31:35

first, that I was indeed tearing her

31:37

from her weightless condition but was

31:39

making her fall back on the moon. Didn't

31:42

I realize it? Or had

31:44

that been my intention from the very beginning? Before

31:48

I could think properly, a cry was already

31:50

bursting from my throat. I'll

31:53

be the one to stay with you for a month, or

31:56

rather on you, I Shouted

31:59

in my excitement. On you for

32:01

a month. And

32:03

at that moment are embrace was broken

32:06

by our fall to the moon's surface

32:08

where we rolled away from each other

32:10

among those colds scales. I

32:13

raised my eyes as I did every time

32:15

I touched the moon's crest. sure that I

32:17

would see above me, the native seem. Like.

32:19

An endless ceiling. And I saw

32:21

yes I saw this time to

32:24

that much higher. Much. More

32:26

narrow, Bound. By its

32:28

borders of coasts and cliffs and promontory.

32:31

And. Have small the boat seemed. Allen

32:34

Familiar my friends faces an hour week,

32:36

their cries, A. Sound

32:38

reach me from nearby misses. The hit

32:40

the hit had discovered her harper and

32:42

was caressing it. Sketching. Out

32:44

accord as sad as weeping.

32:49

Along month began. The.

32:52

Moon turns slowly around the earth.

32:55

On. The suspended globe we no longer

32:57

sar familiar source but the passage

32:59

of oceans as deep as a

33:01

business and deserts to blowing the

33:03

pill I and continents of ice

33:06

and forest rising with reptiles and

33:08

the rocky walls of mountain chains

33:10

gas by swift rivers and swampy

33:12

cities and stone graveyards and empires

33:14

of play in mud. The.

33:17

Distance but a uniform color over

33:19

everything. The. Alien perspectives

33:21

made every image alien. Herds

33:24

of elephants and swarms of locusts

33:26

ran over the planes so evenly

33:28

vast and dance and thickly grown

33:30

that there was no difference among

33:32

them. I should have been

33:34

happy. As I dreamed I

33:36

was alone with her bad intimacy

33:38

with the moon I had so

33:41

often envied my cousins and with

33:43

Mrs. the hit hits was now

33:45

my exclusive prerogative. A month of

33:47

days and Lunar night stretched on

33:49

interrupted before us. The. Crust of

33:51

the satellite nourished us with it's

33:53

milk start. Flavor was familiar to

33:56

us. We. raised our eyes up

33:58

to the world where we had been born Finally,

34:01

traversed in all its various expanse,

34:03

explored landscapes no earth being had ever

34:06

seen or else we

34:08

contemplated the stars beyond the moon, big

34:10

as pieces of fruit made of light

34:12

ripened on the curved branches of the

34:14

sky, and everything exceeded

34:17

my most luminous hopes. And

34:20

yet, and

34:22

yet it was instead exile.

34:27

I thought only of the earth. It

34:29

was the earth that caused each of

34:31

us to be that someone he was

34:33

rather than someone else up there, rested

34:35

from the earth. It

34:38

was as if I were no longer that

34:40

I nor she that she for me. I

34:43

was eager to return to the earth and

34:45

I trembled at the fear of having lost it. The

34:48

fulfillment of my dream of love had

34:51

lasted only that instant when we had

34:53

been united, spinning between earth and moon,

34:55

torn from its earthly soil. My

34:58

love now knew only the heart-rending nostalgia

35:00

for what it lacked. Aware

35:03

a surrounding, a before,

35:06

an after. This

35:09

is what I was feeling, but she,

35:11

as I asked myself,

35:14

I was torn by my fears. Because

35:17

if she also thought only of the earth, this could

35:19

be a good sign, a sign

35:21

that she had finally come to understand me. But

35:24

it could also mean that everything had been useless,

35:26

that her longings were directed still

35:29

and only toward my deaf cousin. Instead

35:33

she felt nothing. She

35:35

never raised her eyes to the old planet. She

35:38

went off, pale among those wastelands,

35:40

mumbling dirges and stroking her harp,

35:43

as if completely identified

35:45

with her temporary, as I thought,

35:47

lunar state. Did

35:50

this mean I had won out over my rival?

35:53

No, I had lost a

35:56

hopeless defeat, because she had

35:58

finally realized that my cousin loved only

36:00

the moon, and the only

36:02

thing she wanted now was to become the

36:04

moon, to be assimilated

36:07

into the object of that extra

36:09

human love. When

36:12

the moon had completed its circling of the planet,

36:14

there we were again over the zinc cliffs. I

36:18

recognized them with dismay, not

36:20

even in my darkest provisions, and I thought the

36:22

distance would have made them so tiny. In

36:25

that mud puddle of the sea, my

36:27

friends had set forth again, without

36:29

the now useless ladders, but

36:32

from the boat rose a kind of

36:34

forest of long poles. Everybody

36:36

was brandishing one, with a harpoon or

36:39

a grappling hook at the end, perhaps in the

36:41

hope of scraping off a last bit of moon

36:43

milk or of lending some kind of

36:45

help to us wretches up there. But

36:48

it was soon clear that no pole was long enough

36:50

to reach the moon, and they

36:52

dropped back ridiculously short, humbled, floating

36:55

on the sea, and in that

36:57

confusion some of the boats were thrown off

36:59

balance and overturned. But

37:01

just then, from another vessel, a longer

37:03

pole, which till then had been

37:05

dragged along on the water's surface, began to

37:07

rise. It must have

37:09

been made a bamboo of many, many bamboo poles

37:12

stuck one into the other, and to

37:14

raise it they had to go slowly, because thin as

37:16

it was, if they let it sway too

37:18

much it might break. Therefore,

37:21

they had to use it with great strength

37:23

and skill, so that the wholly vertical weight

37:25

wouldn't rock the boat. Suddenly

37:28

it was clear that the tip of that pole would touch

37:30

the moon. And we

37:32

saw it graze, then press against the scaly

37:34

terrain, rest there a minute, give a kind

37:36

of little push, or rather a strong push,

37:38

that made it bounce off again, then come

37:41

back and strike that same spot as if

37:43

on the rebound, then move away once more.

37:46

And I recognized, we both, the

37:48

captain's wife and I, recognized my

37:51

cousin. It couldn't

37:53

have been anyone else. He was

37:55

playing his last game with the moon, one

37:57

of his tricks with the moon on the tip of his pole, as

38:00

if he were juggling with her. And

38:03

we realized that his virtuosity had no

38:05

purpose, aimed at no

38:07

practical result. Indeed, you would have said he was

38:10

driving the moon away, that he

38:12

was helping her departure, that he wanted to

38:14

show her to a more distant orbit. And

38:17

this, too, was just like him. He

38:19

was unable to conceive desires that went against

38:22

the moon's nature, the moon's

38:24

course and destiny. And if

38:26

the moon now tended to go away from him, then

38:28

he would take delight in this separation, just

38:30

as, till now, he had delighted in the

38:33

moon's nearness. What

38:35

could Mrs. Vahid Vahid do in the face of this?

38:38

It was only at this moment that she proved her

38:40

passion for the deaf man hadn't

38:42

been a frivolous whim, but an

38:45

irrevocable vow. If

38:48

what my cousin now loved was the distant

38:50

moon, then she, too, would remain distant

38:53

on the moon. I

38:55

sensed this, seeing that she didn't

38:57

take a step toward the bamboo pole, but

38:59

simply turned her harp toward the earth, high

39:01

in the sky, and plucked the strings. I

39:05

say I saw her, but to tell the truth, I only caught a glimpse

39:07

of her out of the corner of my eye, because

39:10

the minute the pole had touched the lunar crust, I

39:12

had sprung and grasped it, and now, fast as a

39:14

snake, I was climbing up the bamboo

39:16

knots, pushing myself along with jerks

39:18

of my arms and knees, light

39:21

in the rarefied space, driven by a natural

39:23

power that ordered me to return to the

39:25

earth, oblivious of the

39:27

motive that had brought me here, but

39:30

perhaps more aware of it than ever, and

39:32

of its unfortunate outcome. And

39:34

already my climb up the swaying pole had reached the point

39:38

where I no longer had to make any effort, but

39:40

could just allow myself to slide, head first,

39:43

attracted by the earth, until in

39:45

my haste, the pole broke into a thousand pieces,

39:49

and I fell into the sea among the boats. My

39:53

return was sweet, my

39:55

home refound, but

39:58

my thoughts were filled only with grief

40:00

it happened. having lost her, and my

40:02

eyes gazed at the moon forever beyond

40:04

my reach as I sought her. And

40:07

I saw her. She was there

40:09

where I had left her, lying on a

40:11

beach, directly over our heads, and

40:13

she said nothing. She

40:16

was the color of the moon. She

40:18

held the harp at her side, and moved

40:20

one hand now and then in slow arpeggios.

40:24

I could distinguish the shape of her bosom, her

40:26

arms, her thighs. Just

40:29

as I remember them now, just as now,

40:32

when the moon has become that flat,

40:34

remote circle, I still look

40:36

for her as soon as the first

40:38

sliver appears in the sky. And

40:40

the more it waxes, the more clearly I imagine

40:43

I can see her, or something of

40:45

her. But only her, in

40:48

a hundred, a thousand different vistas.

40:51

She who makes the moon the

40:53

moon, and whenever she is full, sets

40:56

the dogs to howling all night

40:58

long, and me with them.

41:18

So we have Schreiber reading the Distance

41:20

of the Moon by Italo Calvino on

41:22

the Selected Shorts show. You can find

41:25

more Selected Shorts, including this

41:27

story, as well as upcoming

41:30

live events at symphoniespace.org/Selected Shorts.

41:33

And big thanks to Sarah Montague,

41:35

Catherine Minton, and Beatty Wong for making

41:37

that evening possible. And to

41:40

Leah Schreiber and to you for listening.

41:42

I'm Lulu Miller. We'll see you and the

41:45

moon next time. Hi,

41:52

I'm Alana, and I'm from Queens, New York,

41:54

and here are the staff credits. Our

41:56

lab was created by Jad Avamrod and is

41:58

edited by Soren Wheeler. Lulu

42:00

Miller and Latif Nasser are our co-hosts.

42:03

Dylan Keefe is our Director

42:05

of Sound Design. Our staff

42:08

includes Simon Adler, Jeremy Bloom,

42:10

Becca Bressler, Akati Foster-Keys, W.

42:13

Harry Fortuna, David Gable, Maria

42:16

Paz Gutierrez, Sindhu

42:18

Gnanusambandam, Matt Kielty,

42:21

Annie McEwan, Alex Neeson,

42:23

Sarah Kari, Sarah Sandback,

42:25

Ariane Wack, Pat Walters,

42:27

and Molly Webster. Our

42:30

fact-checkers are Diane Kelly,

42:32

Emily Krieger, and Natalie

42:34

Middleton. Hi,

42:38

this is Ellie from Cleveland, Ohio. Leadership

42:41

support for Radiolab's science programming is provided

42:43

by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation,

42:46

Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation

42:49

initiative, and the John Templeton

42:51

Foundation. Foundational

42:53

support for Radiolab was provided by the

42:55

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Radiolab

43:00

is supported by the John Templeton

43:03

Foundation, funding research and catalyzing conversations

43:05

that inspire people with awe and

43:07

wonder. Learn about the

43:10

researchers making the latest discoveries in

43:12

the science of well-being, complexity, forgiveness,

43:14

and free will at

43:17

templeton.org/podcast. Time

43:21

for a quick break to talk about McDonald's.

43:23

Mornings are for mixing and matching at McDonald's.

43:25

For just $3, mix and match two of

43:28

your favorite breakfast items, including a sausage

43:30

McMuffin. you

43:38

can't go wrong. Price and participation may

43:40

vary.