|
|
 |
Italo Calvino's ‘Invisible Cities' is a book which has no plot as such -- no beginning, no development of characters -- but it does have a sad, bittersweet ending.
It is a collection of
one page descriptions of the cities
that Marco Polo visited on his long travels, interspersed with a succession of dialogues between Kublai Khan, the oriental emperor and Marco Polo who describes fantastic and often magical cities, charactericized by a unique quality or concept.
The novel shines magnificently as a study and examination of our strange relationship with memory. As Polo tells Khan, "It is not the voice that tells the story, but the ear." As Calvino also notes, the best way to really maintain and preserve our memories is to leave them be. Only in this way can we avoid the temptation of returning to them and likely distorting and warping them from their original state.
|
Cities and memory
Diomira
Isidora
Zaira
Zora
Maurilia
|
Cities and desire
Dorotea
Anastasia
Despina
Fedora
Zobeide
|
Cities and signs
Tamara
Zirma
Zoe
Ipazia
Olivia
|
Thin cities
Isaura
Zenobia
Armilla
Sofronia
Ottavia
|
Trading cities
Eufemia
Cloe
Eutropia
Ersilia
Smeraldina
|
Cities and eyes
Valdrada
Zemrude
Bauci
Fillide
Moriana
|
Cities and names
Aglaura
Leandra
Pirra
Clarice
Irene
|
Cities and the dead
Melania
Adelma
Eusapia
Argia
Laudomia
|
Cities and the sky
Eudossia
Bersabea
Tecla
Perinzia
Andria
|
Continuous cities
Leonia
Trude
Procopia
Cecilia
Pentesilea |
Hidden cities
Olinda
Raissa
Marozia
Teodora
Berenice |
|
|
|
|
|
