On the Verge Between Memory and Reality

Focusing on the Trading Cities of Euphemia, Chloe, Eutropia and Ersilia, I can say that the book is a compilation of all the characteristics of a utopic society. For instance, both Euphemia and Eutropia are evidence of this. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could simply escape our reality every once in a while? Wouldn’t it be ideal to simply drift into a distant parallel universe where we didn’t have to deal with everything we constantly have pressing on us, closing in on us as we shrink within a bower. This is another of the many functions and purposes of Calvino’s cities, they are the very representation of human desire, of human need, and above all of human idealizing. As it is described in Euphemia, who wouldn’t want to be able to exchange memories with others? To simply trade them as if they were no more than ordinary merchandise? “And you know that in the long journey ahead of you, when to keep awake against the camel's swaying or the junk's rocking, you start summoning up your memories one by one, your wolf will have become another wolf, your sister a different sister, your battle other battles, on your return from Euphemia, the city where memory is traded at every solstice and at every equinox.” (Calvino,) in this passage, Calvino subtly points out the cons of pretending to be rid of our lives and what they are most importantly made up of: our memories. Although at times we tend to wish we were someone else, although we wish we led that life, had that family, owned those memories, we sooner or later realize the importance of keeping and protecting what is our own, for it is our home. Our choices are what define us in life, and without our memories, those choices we make would not be possible. While our choices are what define us, it is our memories that build us into person capable of making those choices. 

Window to the Past

“All these beauties will already seem familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicoloured lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy towards those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time.” (Calvino, 7). Life seems to be a journey through these invisible cities, a journey that takes us across the moments and experiences we come across in life, those instants we believe to be unique and authentic when truly they are simply a slight variation of something wither we or someone else has already lived. This is exactly what Calvino is talking about in this excerpt form his book. The dilemma surges when we come across the question of whether life is an encounter with one or more invisible cities or an invisible city itself. Invisible Cities is a blend, an enigmatic concoction between reality and fantasy or rather, memory. It is curious, that with time memory seems to shift, to fade into fantasy. Things that have occurred in the distant past, how can we have any evidence that they actually happened for us? How can we recall it was that we felt at that particular moment, or the way in which the order of events exactly took place? There is no evidence of it. There is no way for us to know that it actually happened. Moments, experiences, even those that we hold dear, in the end they are nothing more than memories, memories that wane into distant, dampened dreams and fantasies. Calvino’s invisible cities are all but notions, perceptions of distant realities. They are memories. 

Circle of Life

Invisibles Cities has posed an interesting thought for my mind (that unfortunately for you Mr. Tangen) has nothing to do with metaliterature or the figurative side of things. By reading the first descriptions to the first cities (Diomira, Isidora, Zora, etc) all I can think about is how they would be branded by humans today. It reminds me of how New York City is known as the city that never sleeps and Paris as the city of blinding lights. It makes me wonder the categories each city from the book would fall in, how they would be judged and what name would be given to each. I also find it somewhat suspicious that all descriptions are short and never really go in depth to what the city looks like. Th descriptions are superficial, where Marco Polo seems to generalize the ways of geography. "A city where the buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells, where perfect telescopes and violins are made, where the foreigner hesitating between two women always encounters a third" (Cities and Memory 2). From this sentence which is one of few, gives the readers a sense that Isidora, is more like circles, unlike Diomira which is more sophisticated instead of artistic. Circles while geometric are the shape that means infinity because of the lack of sides. In a way Isidora makes me think of a woman itself. Circles and curves make up the ideals woman's body. Breasts, buttocks, hips. Woman. Precious metals from the table of elements, on the other hand, represent sophistication and power. This is why Diomira made me think of executives in Armani suits and women in Gucci high heels and Prada sunglasses. "Sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower"

(Cities and memory 1).

City of Blinding Lights

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is a peculiar book for more than one reason. What it is about is puzzling, for unlike what I expected, it really is about cities. Somehow I thought the title and the content would have nothing literally in common, or at least not as directly as it does.

Secondly, the table of contents is as normal as can be, except for the fact that the chapters don't have titles of themselves, nor do they lack a title like in some books. Instead, the chapters all start their names with the word cities and are followed by something related to humans, such as memory, desire, signs (which are designed and created by humans), or eyes, among others. Every chapter is then accompanied by a number from 1 to 5, but they are not in order. Any of these characteristics are puzzling by themselves, but the real confusion came when Mr Tangen explained that the book has no distinct order.

There is no order that must be followed in order to understand. It can be read in disorder by following different patterns. For example, some may decide to read chapter after chapter as said in the table of contents, or they may decide to read it following the numbers. Others may read it according to the cities (those of memory, desire, signs, etc). This in all makes the book of the most peculiar I have ever come across.  

Me(me), Not You

Sex is probably the biggest part of life. There are other important things, like surviving, but even survival needs sex. For our genes to survive more than one life time or generation, we need to pass them on, and the only way to do that is through reproduction - which means sex. This works fine for genes, but for meme endurance, it undergoes a slight twist. Memes cannot be passed on from an organism to another through sexual or asexual reproduction, their travel plans are a little bit more complex. Memes are cultural ideas that travel through brains. They have to compete against each other and make themselves as conspicuous and flamboyant as possible because their existence depends on how many organisms "like" them. The imitation of one meme creates a new meme that can be from extremely similar to the original one, to having only a small resemblance. Ideas change with everyone that thinks about them, this is why memes aim to be ideas that are attractive in its original way. The less change they undergo in brains, the clearer the imitation of the original, which means the original will last longer. The change and development in the world affects the memes plans, so it is indeed very hard for them to pass on from one person to another with minimum change made to them.

Take it, Don't Leave it

Taking advantage of those who surround us is according to Dawkins the most natural and even expected behavior for living and conscious organisms. Through the rest of chapter 10, You Scratch My Back, I'll Ride on Yours, more theories of how individuals take advantage of groups are explained. Like the Zahavi Theory, where you demonstrate why the predator should NOT go after you. You make your neighbor look bad or unhealthy in some cases so that the predator sees how hard it would be to get, but how easy it would be to get that someone else. I can relate to this with bullying. When there is a bully in the playground, the last thing you want is to be picked on by him or her. There are many options when it comes to what to do to avoid this, and one of them is to pick on someone else, making them look weak. This way the bully will probably join you in picking at that unlucky fellow instead of choosing you as the target and victim. Same principle for self preservation that gazelles and other animals in the world use.

Dawkins has made it pretty clear throughout the whole book that our nature is to be selfish. acts of kindness aren't normally genuine. There's always reason for them. something that inspires kindness in someone usually means that it can provide something they need, they're just gonna have to help you in order to get a hold of it. It's like prices. Everything has a price and sometimes the price is your safety or well being.

"What's in it for the workers?" (pg. 173). This question is asked when talking about carers and bearers, but it can also relate to individuals and herds. Help will be given, all you have to do is pay up.

Alphabetical Order

A C G T... a language that some humans learn somewhere in high school.

"Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun" said Ray Schleine in the movie Uptown Girls. She also said: "It's a harsh world." I think Richard Dawkins and Ray Schleine are made for each other. Soul mates. The building blocks Dawkins talks about are the nucleotides within a DNA molecule. Our genes makes who and what we are. Like said previously, that is nothing more and nothing less than machines that care about nothing but themselves. Survivors of the "harsh world" Ray mentions in the movie. The specifications of our beings is written in sequences of nucleotides. Sequences that make us all unique in 46 volumes of chromosomes, in an alphabet of four letters - the same four letters that stand capitalized at the top right corner of this blog entry. Each page is a gene, every volume is different from another organisms' volume. We are different but the same. We are survival machines.
                         

Nucleotide: basic structural unit of nucleic acids of DNA and RNA molecules.

Double Helix: structure of parallel helices within a DNA molecule.

DNA molecules: deoxyribonucleic acid, a self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information.

Natural Selection: The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

Protein: compounds composed of long chains of amino acids

Inter - dependence: two things that depend on each other (genes).

(Hunger) Survival Machines

The term "survival machine" reminds me of The Hunger Games. The tributes which are thought of as machines that are designed to fight each other and struggle for survival, are placed in an arena made to make their lives as difficult and miserable as possible. Through The Hunger Games we understand how the capitol and its spectators are godlike creatures expecting those who depend on them to behave like selfish machines programmed to do anything in order to survive.

In another way, The Selfish Gene can relate to The Hunger Games by the genes playing the role of the capitol, while the different species play the tributes. By capitol I mean sponsors, government and citizens that enjoy watching The Hunger Games to entertain themselves. Like genes, they encourage selfish behavior, because they understand that it is the only way to survive. Like the machines, species are forced by the capitol to compete against each other in the arena. Very much like mother nature has a test that will decide if they are worthy or not to continue on earth: natural selection.

Semi Selfless

In the fisrt part of chapter 10 of The Selfish Gene, Dawkins begins to explain how organisms are selfish while among themselves. Packs of wolves, schools of fish, flocks of birds are all actions that animals accept and are part of, but only because there is something in it for them. The advantages provided by physics, such as hydrodynamics from the turbulence the fish infront creates. Dawkins says this is the true reason for the schooling, not that they are the same species and a family. Apparently there does exist some behaviours that radiate selflessness. Birds call to their kin, to warn them about the threat the predator poses. This can save them, while risking his life, for by calling, he is calling attention to himself rather than to some other individual.

A domain of danger is "the area of ground in which any point is nearer to an individual than it is to any other individual"(Pg. 167). In order to survive we must make ourselves safe by making others more vulnerable. They serve as our shield, and if we "migrate" intelligently, we will succeed. Apparently there does exist some behaviours that radiate selflessness. Birds call to their kin, to warn them about the threat the predator poses. This can save them, while risking his life, for by calling, he is calling attention to himself rather than to some other individual. This however doesn't come with no benefit to the caller. In order to assure a greater chance of survivla in the face of predators, one must make sure that it is not only oneself, but anyone that ruins that. You can't play hide and seek with someone that when hiding will make noise and aqnd let the seeker know your hiding place. In that case you would both be perjudiced. This is the cave theory (Pg. 169).

The never break ranks theory explains that we do indeed need our group, flock, school or crowd. We do not want to be spotted by the predator alone. If you are gonna warn your group, you must make sure that every one gets the message and so you will all proceed as a group where migrating inward will be easier. The bigger the group you are part of, the safer you are.

Aggregations: Formations where anmals place themselves together in order to avoid their domain of danger from increasing. 



5 Words, 1 Chapter

The Selfish Gene can be defined by certain keywords. Keywords that can lead us to understand what each chapter is talking about. In the second chapter The Replicators, key words and phrases such as: accuracy, efficiency, longevity and complex entities are the main points and ideas that it talks about.
The first three are the reasons why certain types of replicator molecules survive among a pool of different types. The phrase "Complex entities" on the other hand describes the replicators themselves, and how evolution and biological molecules go from being simple and lonely, to creating something of great complexity, like the human body. All living organisms are made up of molecules, and one of the most important molecules are the replicators. Complex entities that thanks to their efficiency, longevity and accuracy, are the survivors and the fittest.

Indeed

I stand corrected: greater satire exists beyond that in Slaughterhouse Five. Candide sounds like candy to me, which is sweet and a childish thing, yet what happens to Candide in Candide is nothing like candy, except maybe the irony it contains, which believe me I have savored with as much intensity as an anorexic savors a gummy bear.

There is no doubt that almost every single thing (if not all) said, described and narrated in Candide has a hidden meaning where different ruling aspects of modern times are targeted and attacked by means of irony, hyperbole and absurdity. "Those who have never seen two well-trained armies drawn up for battle, can have no idea of the beauty and brilliance of the display," (p-age 25). War, optimism, fanaticism ("For it is impossible for things not to be where they are, because everything is for the best," (page 35) again and again, over and over) and faith are all included, yet in this blog entry I would like to center more on the story and the characters. I can't help being reminded of a certain mutual childhood friend, I am pretty sure I share with most if not all the people who happen to read this blog, known as Forrest Gump. Just like Forrest, Candide is a young man who we now know is as naive as it gets without having a learning disability or mental retardation (even though Forrest does happen to have one). I am sure this similarity can be made with Candide and other long known characters of the literary world, yet what makes Candide's story most like Forrests' is the series of events that both face during their life. Unlike Forrests' experiences, which all lead to honor and praise as well as admiration, Candide's are catastrophic to an extreme far from improbable and even possible. Either way, both characters undergo what we understand under the common category of "extraordinary" circumstances by means of their naiveness (Candide) and stupidity (Forrest). Opposite poles of extraordinary, one being too good to be true, and the other too bad to be true, no one can deny that they do indeed bear a resemblance.