Qfwfq

Qfwfq is around from the beginning of life til the very end of it while never having been anywhere. He has lived through all of time and yet he’s never lived a second.

In The Aquatic Uncle, he’s too weak and pathetic. At one point he simply gives up, and doesn’t do a thing to win the heart of the girl he’s supposedly in love with. But! He grows from this. He uses his immaturity to build stronger character, as the father in “Calvin and Hobbes” is always going on about. “It was a hard blow for me. But, after all, what could I do about it? I went on my way in the midst of the world’s transformations, being transformed myself.” (Page 81) The first two sentences show a lack of confidence and character, which, in turn, shows a lack of maturity. The third sentence shows that he has taken his own immaturity and used it as a fuel to evolve mentally and physically. He isn’t a strong willed person, and he doesn’t always understand people. Both of those things come with age. They come with wisdom. Qfwfq is traveling through the time of the Earth at his own separate pace, and sometimes time slows down for him to really take in details or for him to vividly experience one important part of his ever lengthening life. Qfwfq is an ancient creature living millions upon millions of years ago, but at the very same time he’s millions upon millions of years advanced from us, and we are the ancient creatures that he studies in his science and history classes. He is the subject and we are the student, but he is also the student and we are the subject.

Qfwfq is immortal. His spirit, his entity, has traveled a long path from the very beginning to the very end and as the stories of Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino progress he becomes more mature, more knowledgeable. In the story The Dinosaurs, he’s a very angry character, almost like a hormonal teenager, but in the beginning and end of the story he almost has a different voice. “All except me, - Qfwfq corrected,- because, for a certain period, I was also a Dinosaur: about fifty million years, I’d say…” (Page 97) “I traveled through valleys and plains. I came to a station, caught the first train, and was lost in the crowd.” (Page 112) In the very beginning of Cosmicomics, Qfwfq is a hydrogen bubble. At this point the writing isn’t as clear, showing his lack of experience. During the course of the book he slowly evolves out of the sea, onto the land, and then into the sky, but the very last story is about the sea mollusks, as though he has developed back to his very roots. As he’s narrating his own story, it shows that he is living while already having lived by the way that he tells his story. For most of Cosmicomics, at the beginning of each story, it says things like “Old Qfwfq recalled” and “Qfwfq said”. It calls him old, because he is old. He’s lived through all of Earth’s history, which makes him the oldest living thing out there, while at the same time he hasn’t lived through any of it. This quote proves that- the first part talks about how he’s been a dinosaur for about fifty million years, longer than any normal dinosaur would live. The second part of the quote talks about how he “traveled through valleys and plains” and then mentions him catching a train, which is a modern, human thing. Traveling through the valleys and plains is like his travel through time and the part about the train is the end of his journey, in which he is no longer a dinosaur but now a human being.

Once again in The Dinosaurs, we have another quote preaching anger and frustration. Part of Qfwfq’s development involves large misunderstandings on his part or on the part of those he interacts with. He’s not good at handling other people’s emotions and thoughts, and often becomes that dark, fuming being that holds a grudge against anything that crosses his path. “...I finally felt toward them the same intolerance I had had toward my own environment, and the more I heard them admiring the Dinosaurs the more I detested Dinosaurs and New Ones alike.” (Page 80) He’s impatient, ignorant, and, as he himself admits, intolerant. Each of those words starts with “I”. For the longest time, through trial and error, Qfwfq struggles with this letter, this word. It’s as though there is a constant battle within him, and he doesn’t know whether to trust the “I” or to trust the “Them”. This is what shapes his being. The fight for comprehension leads him to being the most understand person or thing alive. But he also doesn’t understand, which is why he understands. It’s like knowing you’re chewing your thumbnails but you aren’t doing anything about it. Qfwfq knows, and he knows that he doesn’t know, and yet he’s not aware that he knows that he doesn’t know. Get it?