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.