Lost

Zobeide: the city of dreams. Or it can also be named, the city of pity. "...they set out in search of the city; they never found it, but they found another; they decided to build a city like the one in the dream...but none of them ever saw the woman again." The men had a dream: a woman. The women then lead to another: building a city to pursue a dream. The dream city then inspires a dream of constructing till perfection: always with the dream of finding the woman. Two dreams raveled in a one dream, which creates a trap. A never-ending cycle that only creates melancholy.
A sense of incompetence that develops a city into a nest of deception. This situation in which the founders and the visitors of Zobeide are in, resembles the plot of the movie: Inception. A movie where the only place where DiCaprio can live up to his expectations and forget his utter failures, is continuing living in his dream. What I get this from this connection is a hint to Calvino's connection with the real world. A rather pessimistic idea expressed and quite cheesy: fair to say that its pretty cliche. More than an idea, this theme poses a question: what if we didn't expect so much? What if our expectations were lower? Would we be happier, would the world rid itself of melancholy? if the simplest things made us happy once again? Maybe, just maybe, no dreams are the answer for happiness.

Cycle Of Genes

Approaching the end of Invisible Cities, Calvino starts to extend the writing only on Marco Polo's thoughts and encounters. The reader starts to illustrate a finer picture of both Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. In other words blog-material galore. But I restrained myself from righting and continued to dive into Marco's encounters. But on page one hundred fifty five/one hundred fifty three, a lightbulb clicked in my brain. A connection was established. Invisible Cities and Selfish Gene. Dawkins and Calvino? Biology and Kublai Khan? Prepare to be enlightened.
The second chapter of Selfish Gene, has everything to do with evolution: how the ancestor is never lost, it only grows more complex throughout generations. What I mean is that no matter the mutation or process of swift or gradual evolution that takes place: the original block will still be present. "When the turns exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of the cities begins." An endless cycle, but once this separation occurs, the original seed is carried by both cities.
The same has to do with the Selfish Gene, without getting too scientific: speciation. Speciation is what happens when one species divides into two. At  one point of this isolation (the scientific term: geographic, behavioral, temporal isolation) the species can no longer breed efficiently, thus creating a species. A cycle which is called natural selection: in my words a cycle of ever/complexity. Never stopping, always paving the road for the world's existence.
Cities pave our world, and never stop overlapping itself, but the foundations are never altered. No matter the years, there was once a beginning and there will always be a beginning.

With no End.

Don't Try Too Hard

Invisible Cities is the complete opposite of what we have been reading the last month. A complete contrast   to Simple Heart and Cathedral. Flaubert and Carver include such detail that the reader doesn't think twice upon the scenario. It is almost as though Flaubert and Carver want to give the reader only one road to choose. Calvino's text is quite the opposite of such fruitful detail. In fact the descriptions bestowed on each city can sometimes be vague.
Much this lack of detail idea has me thinking that Calvino wants the reader to choose his own train of thought. The cities are delivered with enough detail for the reader t create its own world. Containing no interference with overwhelming detail as in Flaubert's or Carver's works. So the whole idea of show don't tell works counter/clock wise in Invisible Cities. Calvino expresses the basic, but then the reader is left to create (show) his own world. However this idea not only applies to the reader. Kublai Khan is situated in the same position as the reader. "The Great Khan deciphered the signs, but the connection between them and the places visited remained uncertain; he never knew whether Marco wished to enact an adventure that had befallen him on his journey, an exploit of the city's founder, the prophecy of an astrologer, a rebus or a charade to indicate a name."(22) The Great Emperor finds himself making his own path based on the deciphered ideas from Marco.

This idea of uncertainty becomes clear when the Khan becomes curious if he will ever fully comprehend his empire. "On the day when I know all the emblems...shall I be able to posses my empire, at last?" In response to the Emperor " Sire, do not believe it. On that day you will be an emblem among emblems." In other words the uncertainty that Calvino implicates in his writing signifies a teaching. A teaching that in my opinion means that uncertainty is what keeps the world in motion. And that this motion will never be fully comprehensible. One revolves around the world: not the world around one. Not even great kings will ever comprehend. So don't try too hard, because the situation will never be under control.

Maybe Is The Best I Have

"It has neither name nor place...everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear." 

In addition to the text above, Kublai Khan's feelings of each city resembling one another.  Got me thinking that what if Polo is describing one city? A city where his dreams originate, a city which he has either the fear of losing from his memory or longs to explore. A third possibility that circulates might be the idea that the original city, is quite original. WHat i mean by this: maybe there are no blueprints for the original city: a city made by Marco's dreams. 

As Marco tells the emperor that the city has "neither name nor place", the reader right away asks: Then what is a city? If Marco's definition of city has neither time nor place, then how can it be an actual city? Staying away from the literal aspects of population and blatant infrastructure. Another question arises. 

Does this idea of nor time nor place, finally explain why Calvino writes in no particular age? Thus justifying the 20th century buildings with 15th century caravan routes or either camel or steamboat transportation. I get lost even writing about my ideas that surge from trying to tie all aspects of Calvino's text. The possibility that Polo's dream city divides into all the cities described to the Khan or that this idea of time nor place, does not expose Polo's blasphemy. In contrary, maybe Calvino ties the idea of eternal cities. Cities where time doesn't affect either the people or the place. Casting a blanket of infinite exploration, of mystery. A sense of invisibleness. Hence explaining why Calvino doesn't bother writing in a specific tie period. Including characteristics stretching from the fifteenth century to modern day. A hint of Paradox. 

W.T.F.

 As I begin to advance through the first cities mentioned by Calvino, I cannot help but question the names of each City. At first, my ignorance dominated my rationale. I thought each name was a city somewhere in the Middle East or someplace. And to be honest I would've arrived Friday morning, convinced that the cities expressed were in fact real. Anastasia was the name that made me stop and think. Even though I didn't discard the possibility that Anastasia might actually be a city through out the former Soviet Union. My initial thought was Anastasia Romanov, the last of the Tsar reign. 

Anastasia of Russia

With this connection established, I researched what Anastasia means to check if the cities' names actually have a deeper meaning. And to astonish my ignorance, my hunch was correct. Anastasia means resurrection, deriving from the Greek word, Anastasi. A name in which hope thrives. It was here where I totally lost Calvino's track. 

The city Anastasia is defined as "...belief of enjoyment actually means  enslavement." From this description, I can quite frankly, only imagine a crap place to live in. A place in which man enters a world of "treachery and malignance." A complete antonym to what the city's name represents. W.T.F.! What does Calvino want the reader to materialize from this?

My answer for this specific city is: a demonstration on decisions taken from superficial inquiries. What I mean is that Calvino wants to highlight that although many desires in-reach surround man, one must prioritize if man does not want to fall victim to temptation. Surrounded by desires only produces indecision which leads to failure. 

Presuming that the rest of the chapter's names will have such profoundness attached. Calvino's aim is to construct a world of lessons and expositions of man.