For this week in Literature of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy I read the short story “The Aquatic Uncle” by Italo Calvino. This story had really intrigued me by the way it resembles modern society today. It uses a great amount of symbolism to do so. The plot of the story revolves around how fishes adapted to land. The main character, Qwfq, and his family moved onto land and grew paws... except for his uncle N’ba N’ga. The characters that had paws symbolized how terrestrial creatures that have lived on land long enough to develop them and represent higher prestige than aquatic animals.
As a result, Qfwfq commonly speaks of his terrestrial girlfriend's, Lll, "paws" with great respect. "Tadpoles" represent the desire not to live a different life and also adolescence, someone who does not understand the world. In the story, Qfwfq is embarrassed that his uncle N’ba N’ga because of his stubbornness. N’ba N’ga wishes to stick to old traditions, rather than changing the way his family lives. He also symbolizes age and the concept of the cycle of ideas- how ideas that are considered old will once again become new again. The story reinforces this concept when Lll decides to join Qfwfq, that has to obey his uncle’s wishes to become a fish. The last symbol I took note of are the "edges", in which it depicts a division in society and when crossing the boundary playing can result in conforming to the other side.
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