David Backer offers his thoughts on Elaine Chiew’s “Italo Calvino People”, his favorite piece from Issue Eight:
“Good stories make little new file folders in my head, places where I can organize ideas. This (hi)story did that for me. It helped and continues to help me organize experiences like this: While heating up some polenta leftovers, I asked a friend if he wanted some. He looked horrified. I asked him, ‘What’s the problem?’ He said, ‘I didn’t think you were into the whole placenta-eating thing.’ I told him I wasn’t, that I’d said ‘polenta’, and he proceeded to tell me about the current trend of parents eating the mother’s placenta after birth, an ancient tradition meant to enhance the upbringing of the child. This made me think of ‘Italo Calvino People’. The next day I asked another friend where the band Spoon originated. We were sitting in her living room. She said, ‘I don’t know, my computer’s not on.’ Each clause, the first and second, were said in the same breath, connecting her knowledge with access to a computer. This made me think of ‘Italo Calvino People’, too. Now when I encounter something eerily predictive of our collective fate I think of ‘Italo Calvino People’. I find this very helpful. Thanks, Elaine.”