Cosmic

Cosmic engages with deep philosophical questions about identity, significance, and the human condition. When Liam is alone in space, staring at Earth floating in darkness, the scene is reminiscent of Blaise Pascal’s reflection on humanity’s smallness: “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me” (Pascal, Blaise. Pascal’s Pensées. EP Dutton & Co, 1959, No. 206. Project Gutenberg, 2006.). Liam confronts that same silence and vastness when he finds himself drifting around the moon, reflecting on his insignificance. In that moment, the book transitions from a coming-of-age narrative to a meditation on existence itself.

However, the novel also engages with Einstein’s notion of relativity, not just in the scientific sense, but in the sense that a change in perspective shifts perceptions. Though there is some debate about how the quote should be rendered in English, Einstein said the following in a 1950 letter to his friend David Marcus, as translated from the German by Alice Calaprice:

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind. (Haymond, Bryce. “Einstein’s Misquote on the Illusion of Feeling Separate from the Whole.” Thy Mind, O Human. From Calaprice, Alice. The New Quotable Einstein. Princeton University Press, 2005).

Einstein suggests that by accepting one’s position as part of a whole rather than as a separate individual, one can feel more fulfilled and at peace in their life. To navigate the world, one experiences a sense of individuality, but this is just an illusion created by one’s conscious perspective.

Liam’s shift in perspective, from pretending to be a grown-up to feeling the weight of responsibility and insignificance in space, mirrors this idea. In space, far from gravity and home, the novel raises questions about what grounds people, morally, emotionally, and existentially. Liam’s realization that “[g]ravity is variable […] Sometimes one boy can weigh more than the whole universe” (351) is a metaphor for this idea. It suggests that meaning and significance aren’t fixed in place but can change. Liam’s story thus asks readers to question their own place in the universe, and whether they see themselves as an individual or as part of a whole.

Finally, the story touches on the Christian idea of the importance of fatherly guidance in one’s life, “all the way to the Dad of the universe” (353). Liam learns his own role as a guiding figure, as well as the need for guidance and unconditional love in his life.