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.