Invisible Cities Essay Example

(Ricci, “Italo Calvino”).

Salman Rushdie had mixed feelings about Invisible Cities by Calvino. He admired the beautiful language and ideas in the book, but criticized the lack of compelling storytelling. Rushdie suggests reading the book in small doses for bedtime reading. Despite differing opinions, one theme stands out in the scholarly analysis of this novel: the evolving series in Invisible Cities serves as both a structural and rhetorical element. This series may give a sense of pessimism, but it actually strengthens the story by constantly refreshing the scenery and ultimately leaving an impression of hope. Rosetta Di Pace-Jordan is one of the critics who believes that the serial structure of the novel represents the author's intention. Di Pace-Jordan argues that seriality allows for multiple choices, conclusions, and themes to be present simultaneously, unlike a traditional narrative where a character follows a set path.

Calvino's Invisible Cities breaks away from the traditional linear narrative structure, allowing movement and progression through intermittent dialogues between Marco Polo and the Kublai Khan. According to Pace-Jordan's article, these conversations play a crucial role in framing the descriptions of the cities and provide continuous momentum to the story. Pace-Jordan further explores how Calvino's participatory attitude positions him as a modern cartographer of consciousness, following in the footsteps of Italian literary tradition. The critic also highlights the mapping impulse as a source of optimism in Calvino's ending, as Polo's determination to explore new possibilities counters Khan's skepticism and weariness. Despite their contrasting approaches, comparisons between Dante and Calvino are inevitable, as they both embrace the notion of the literary work as a map of the world and the knowable.

According to Albert Sbragia's analysis titled

"Italo Calvino's Ordering of Chaos," the conventional approach of Western science has tended to exclude chaos from its studies, focusing instead on the tidy and logical equations of Euclidean physics. This disregard for the chaotic nature of natural phenomena has led to a negative perception of chaos as an incomprehensible state of confusion, causing fear and anxiety. It has been believed that the universe's entropic tendency would ultimately lead to its destruction as the accumulation of lost energy resulted in a cosmic "Dutch oven" effect. However, it is only in the latter part of the twentieth century, with advancements in information sciences and technology, that scientists have begun to reconsider their understanding of chaos.

"Instead of being seen as poor, chaotic systems are now recognized as rich in information and complexity," says Sbragia. He explains that scientists have started emphasizing two groundbreaking ideas. Firstly, that "the majority of nonlinear phenomena in the universe do not exhibit true randomness, but rather an organized disorder" (Sbragia). Secondly, "the interplay between order and disorder is not a one-way path leading to entropy and death, but rather the fundamental source of life in the universe" (Sbragia).

Sbragia argues that Calvino's ideas on systems, organization, and a writer's work are rooted in the emerging science of chaos. In his essay "Exactitude," found in his book Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Calvino explains that while the universe is subject to disintegration and entropy, there are areas of order within this irreversible process. These areas, which Calvino likens to privileged points, form the basis of a work of literature. Such a work is not fixed or definitive, but rather alive like an organism.

This perspective differs from that of Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers, who depict literature as creating order from chaos. Instead, Calvino's focus is on creating pockets of order amidst chaos. Sbragia concludes that many of Calvino's characters in Invisible Cities are highly sensitive to the disorder in the world, which may explain why much of the book explores the possibilities provided by its structure while examining the order and disorder within Khan's empire.

Whereas Pace-Jordan and Sbragia provide a comprehensive analysis of the novel, exploring its overall elements, Constance A. Pedoto's "Game Playing in the Fiction of Italo Calvino" focuses specifically on one metaphor used by Calvino. Pedoto extensively discusses the game of chess played by Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, arguing that Calvino employs this activity to examine the creation of new systems of language and the process through which outdated words, symbols, and objects regain meaning in a language. Pedoto states, "Similar to Christ bringing Lazarus back to life, Calvino aims to rescue his audience from Adelma, a city or graveyard for outdated linguistic methods and obsolete perceptions of life" (Pedoto). Agreeing with this perspective, Albert Carter suggests that by transforming the abstract concept of Empire into a concrete item - a chessboard - mental spaces are created to accommodate the events and facts of history and geography, resulting in reality becoming thought.

Both Polo and Ricci view cities as symbolic representations of mental and emotional states. Polo embraces the concept of separating the mind and material world, treating life's limitations as a game. Meanwhile, Ricci expands upon this idea, suggesting that cities also represent poetic possibilities. Although Ricci agrees with Rushdie that Invisible Cities

is a remarkable work of art, he disputes its classification as a narrative, stating that Calvino fails to tell a traditional story. Unlike other critics who analyze Calvino's structure, Ricci finds little importance in it.

Perhaps, both he and Rushdie are part of a group of writers who believe that storytelling can only happen against the backdrop of structure, rather than through it. According to Paul Harris, the author of “Italo Calvino: The Code, the Clinamen and the Cities,” their argument is only partially true. He has discovered that the interaction between the dramatic dialogues and the descriptions of the cities reveals a meta-language that makes the specific details of each city indispensable. This language requires a framework for representing and containing objects, which means that a specific structure is crucial in creating the world in which Marco Polo exists and communicates.

According to Harris, the issue is not metaphor in this context, but rather the premise itself. Metaphors are taken literally, so instead of representing abstract concepts, they embody them. This highlights the material and mathematical nature of the story's structure and signifies a changing relationship between subject, object, author, and audience. Ricci, like many others, agrees with Calvino's optimistic ending for the book as it instills a renewed belief in personal strength and courage. Martin McLaughlin's book, Italo Calvino, provides an extensive analysis of Invisible Cities.

This is a comprehensive study of Calvino’s fiction and Six Memos, written in English rather than being translated, that is accessible to undergraduate readers. It has become one of the most frequently cited texts in Calvino scholarship since its publication. McLaughlin begins by explaining Calvino's writing process, stating that the

cities were written as serial units in no specific order and later grouped together. Calvino used complex mathematical constraints to give the book a cohesive structure with a beginning, middle, and end. McLaughlin then provides an overview of the cities described in each chapter, emphasizing their similarities and differences. He focuses on one or two cities to exemplify the others. According to McLaughlin, despite the intricate structural pattern of the book, there is a clear progression from visible to invisible elements in the cities described.

According to McLaughlin, there is a shift from simplicity to complexity in Invisible Cities on multiple levels. The cities at the beginning of the book are described through lists of external features, while the cities later in the book are characterized by happiness or poverty and complex metaphors. McLaughlin also points out that the writing style of Invisible Cities is more concise compared to Calvino's previous work, reminiscent of Borgesian brevitas. This is fitting considering that the book is a "love poem to the city" written during a time when cities are becoming increasingly uninhabitable. McLaughlin suggests that part of the book's appeal lies in its ability to reconcile opposites, such as containing infinite possibilities within its brevity, having prose that borders on verse, and utilizing substantive descriptions rather than adjectives. Furthermore, despite being only 165 pages long, Invisible Cities references not only Calvino's earlier and future works but also other canonical texts.

The impact of Calvino's meticulous work on the novel does not solely belong to him. McLaughlin, in an earlier chapter, refers to Calvino's essay "Whom Do We Write For or The Hypothetical Bookshelf" to discuss the author's postmodern inclination

towards the death of the author. According to Calvino's essay, the reader holds more significance than the text itself since any person, regardless of being the intended audience or not, can read it. This undermines Marxist literary theory, where the author and text are the driving forces for change in the reader. With the author being deemed deceased and the reader as the primary creator of meaning, Calvino attempts to replace himself with language as the owner of the book. This does not imply that the author is absent from the novel (Barthes). Instead, the author is seen as a previous form of the book, like a mother who gives it life, nurtures it, helps it develop its character so it can stand independently in the world.

The author's influence is present in the book, but he is not synonymous with it. And he is not the only determiner of meaning. Barthes explains that in the vastness of writing, everything needs to be untangled and nothing can be completely deciphered. This is because reading occurs in the interaction between the text and the reader, and the reader creates meaning based on their own response to the text. Therefore, there are no absolute interpretations or fixed meanings assigned to any particular text.

The text below highlights the suitability of Invisible Cities for multiple interpretations and its inclination towards metaphorical readings. It also presents a critical and artistic examination of the book, analyzing its progression, imagery, and themes. To create this analysis, the author read Invisible Cities six times before studying the opinions of scholars and critics.

I read the book three times and looked for more resources as I

wrote the text. It was crucial to me that the ideas and interpretations I present here are original. Although some of them align with McLaughlin's critiques.

The main idea is that I came up with these ideas on my own and only used additional resources to further explain or find terms for ideas that I already had. Although Invisible Cities doesn't have a traditional plot, it does have a narrative progression. This progression has two aspects. Firstly, there is a noticeable change in the nature of the cities described. As Marco Polo describes each city, he reveals its character, including its contradictions, history, beauty, and horrors. None of the descriptions can be considered entirely positive or negative. Calvino argues that it is more useful to classify cities into two categories: those that continue to shape desires over time and changes, and those where desires either destroy the city or are destroyed by it (Calvino, Invisible Cities 35).

The initial cities depicted in the novel convey a predominantly positive perception of the empire as a whole. However, as the story progresses, the nature of these cities gradually becomes darker, reflecting a more pessimistic viewpoint. Eventually, the narrative leads us to the "infernal city." In terms of perspective, Invisible Cities presents itself as a third person narrative where the explorer Marco Polo describes to the fictional emperor Kublai Khan the various cities within his empire. The vastness of Khan's empire prevents him from personally experiencing all its regions, making him open to Polo's account, albeit with some skepticism. Structurally, the book consists of nine chapters, each divided into five subtitled sections, except for the first and last chapters,

which contain ten subsections each.

Each subsection in this text contains Marco Polo's description of a specific city, narrated from his perspective. These cities are categorized into different types such as Cities of Memory, Trading Cities, and Thin Cities. There are a total of five occurrences for each city type, each numbered to establish a framework for the story. The order of presentation within each chapter follows a pattern: the first city is numbered "5," indicating it is the last appearance for that city type, while the last city is numbered "1," representing its first appearance as that type of city. Surrounding each chapter are two untitled sections written in third person, highlighting the development of Polo and Khan's relationship.

The reductive structure can be represented by the unique structure of this book, which allows for various reading sequences or "lines" to be taken. According to Harris, Calvino created a multifaceted structure in which the cities appear in a series that is not governed by logic or hierarchy, but instead forms a network with multiple routes and conclusions. One possible sequence is a "straight reading" from the first page to the last, but this approach presents issues that can only be resolved by exploring other less conventional lines. Therefore, it is necessary for diligent readers to approach the book through different sequences: the sequences of city types, number groups, and unnumbered narrative sections. The plot or its apparent absence presents a problem.

The first few lines of the text, "Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the

The text reveals that when the reader joins in the action, it has already occurred.

Thus, the plot can be summarized as "Two guys have walked into a bar." The main focus of the narrative is the ongoing conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, which began before we start listening and likely continues after we finish reading. Another significant aspect is the interconnectedness of the cities. Rather than being randomly placed, they are thoughtfully arranged. Various types of cities are mentioned across multiple chapters and different types are grouped together within chapters based on common themes.

One issue is the narrator's identity: he is neither Khan nor Marco Polo but rather a regular third person narrator, which is an intriguing choice for a text that lacks typicality. The resolutions for these problems only become apparent when the reader acknowledges the cumulative nature of the issues and recognizes that they serve as a form of solution.

The text emphasizes that when reading Invisible Cities, there is not much action present. However, it does contain ample information about the history and relationship between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan as well as a clear structure for organizing the cities. Initially, the reader is introduced to Khan and his empire, which is described as a prosperous but deteriorating "formless ruin" (Cities 5). Khan's once everlasting empire is slowly decaying and Marco Polo is at court to narrate the cities of the empire to him, with the hope of identifying a subtle pattern that could extend indefinitely.

The descriptions of the cities in this section by Polo examine the connections between signs or signification, memory, and desire. Towards the end of this initial chapter, there is a narrative recapitulation of these concepts, with the cities serving as

a means to define them in order to incorporate their novelistic meanings into the story. The Great Khan yearns to possess his empire and assert his knowledge and ownership over it. However, Marco Polo has explored every inch of it and claimed it as his own, making the memories of the cities his own as well.

Now, Polo is required to use nonverbal signs to communicate his memories to the emperor because neither of them speaks each other's language. As time passes, Khan becomes annoyed with Polo's cities. He states: "The other ambassadors warn me about famines, extortions, conspiracies, or they inform me about recently found turquoise mines, good prices on marten furs, suggestions on how to supply damascened blades. And you...you come from equally distant lands and all you can tell me are the thoughts that occur to a man who sits on his doorstep in the evening...".

(Cities 27) While it may be true that the cities Marco Polo mentions are products of his imagination, Polo does not respond to Khan. Instead, both Polo and Khan remain silent, envisioning the dialogue they could be having. The cities discussed in the second chapter bring up the concept of convergence. Polo suggests that a city is not a single entity but rather holds different meanings for different individuals.

Nevertheless, the essence of a city remains unchanging and immutable. This is in response to Khan's questioning: whether Marco Polo physically visited each place or dreamt of them, the essence of their discovery remains the same. In the third chapter, Khan begins to contemplate as he notices that Polo's cities often resemble one another, as if transitioning from one city

to another involves a shift in elements. The emperor believes he is starting to comprehend the essence of discovery and interrupts Polo's story to ask him to name a city.

Khan discusses a city, but Polo informs him that it is the very city he had been describing before he was interrupted. Polo explains that he was describing the city for a specific reason - to eliminate cities that lack a connection, a structure, a point of view, or a narrative from the multitude of imaginable cities. He draws a parallel between cities and dreams, stating that while anything can be imagined, even the most unexpected dream represents a hidden desire or fear. (Cities 43-44) By making this statement, Polo suggests that the cities he describes are purely products of his imagination. In other words, there are different kinds of cities, and one can let their imagination run wild, but there are limits to the value of a city.

We disregard cities that lack desire or fear as they may be our rulers. If our grand creations lack desire or fear as their foundation, can they serve us any purpose? The cities outlined in this section imply that the answer is negative. Each of these cities is heavily sexualized and alarming. They embody snares, realms without boundaries, lacking structures to support fixtures, worlds in which the symbols we have learned represent entirely different meanings, where neighbors live as unfamiliar individuals.

At the end of these descriptions, Khan informs Marco Polo about another city that has surrendered. Khan instructs Polo to seek out this city and then return to inform him about its similarities to the description. Polo responds

by saying that he will eventually come across the city, but once he does, he will be unable to leave it. This implies that the city is like a gateway to death. The underlying connection here is between desire and fear, resulting in death. A city or a person's life can be based on either desire or fear. However, regardless of the foundation, death becomes inevitable. This suggests that desire and fear stem from the same source and have the same necessity. Fear can serve a purpose as it protects us from harm and keeps us alive.

Or, it can be unhealthy, crippling us, keeping us from acting altogether. The question raised here is whether or not the same is true of desire. Does desire keep us healthy? Alive? It can. Desire provides us with a reason to keep moving, to keep acting, and at times a reason to ignore/overcome fear. In healthy doses, anticipating the fulfilling of a desire provides the human animal with a glee of a kind. We seek out this sensation; some of us find that we need it with ever-increasing frequency.

The intense longing can completely consume us, and the happiness previously felt from anticipation transforms into a bitter, excruciating pain located in the chest and abdomen. It is not certain that either of these emotions will cause our demise. Additionally, both are essential for personal growth and for creating a prosperous city. Marco Polo has informed Khan about indications of desire and fear.

Khan, in his translation of these, has based his desire for possessing and knowing his empire on the fear that he will never achieve it. He will die

as an emperor without any recollection of his empire. The cities mentioned in chapter four are all cities filled with unexpected elements. The beginning of the story is set in a time closer to the end of Kublai Khan's life. This passage exemplifies the emperor's conflicting attitudes towards the well-being of his people. In the initial excerpt, he confronts Marco Polo, scolding him for sharing too many "fables" (Cities 59).

The emperor acknowledges that both he and his empire are in the declining stage of their lives. The traveler agrees, stating that the empire is not only sick, but it is also getting used to its afflictions. Polo, however, has not just traveled to witness its misery but also to find its happiness, which he shares with Khan. In response, Khan becomes ecstatic about the empire and scolds Polo for focusing too much on insignificant sorrows. During these moments, Marco reminds him that someone needs to gather the remnants of the cities that are destroyed in order to construct the ultimate city.

The emperor relies on the and their contents to understand how to achieve perfection for the city and make up for its losses. This chapter demonstrates that a city is more than just its description; it has two sides – one that is successful and attractive, and one that is not. Both aspects are valid.

This is a quote from the trader of language: "Falsehood is never in words; it is in things" (Cities 62). We have the ability to alter how we describe a city, but that does not alter the city itself. The same goes for refusing to acknowledge its existence. We

cannot simply observe a city while avoiding any interaction and expect it to become only what we have observed. Similarly, our essential selves cannot be changed by changing our jobs, geography, or friends.

In our beings, only the circumstances are rearranged and not what is inherent. We cannot make our perception into the truth or the essence of ourselves. What we desire to be true has no relevance to the central essence of Truth. Whether we change our description of truth when it remains constant, or refuse to change our description when truth changes, we cannot control it. This is why in the conclusion of this chapter, Kublai Khan's depictions of cities differ from those visited by Marco Polo. This interpretation reflects the increasing dominance of metaphor throughout the book and the simultaneous weakening of imperial power. As the reader gains understanding of metaphor and the creation of meaning, the authority of the author and critic to define perception and thereby shape the reader's identity diminishes.

Khan has developed a model that can be used to generate all potential cities by adding exceptions to the established norm. He believes that by uncovering the essence of cities, the ultimate truth about them, he can identify new and genuine cities. Conversely, Marco Polo recognizes the flaws in this approach. His model city is constructed solely from the "exceptions, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions," and he gradually eliminates characteristics until he discovers a city (Cities 69). Essentially, he gathers all possible truths and gradually narrows them down to find something practical, acknowledging that it is impractical to begin with an absolute truth. This process is based on inductive reasoning.

According to the traveler,

his operation has a limit and he cannot force it further than that. If he were to keep removing potential exceptions and truths, he would eventually reach a Truth that is not useful or usable, rendering it insignificant. This mirrors the attempts of certain readers to assign meanings to texts that are not supported by the text itself. The stories in the fifth chapter of Calvino's book embody his concepts of weight and lightness, as well as the notion of impermanence. This chapter holds a central position in the physical structure of the book and is referred to as the "central arch" by McLaughlin (105).

Kublai Khan is depicted in the opening narrative as standing on the balustrade of his palace, observing the expansion of his empire. At first, the empire expands outward, exerting immense pressure on itself. Then, it shifts inward, transforming arid regions into flourishing ones and uninhabited areas into populated ones. The slaves of Kublai Khan have undertaken remarkable feats to construct monumental structures, and now the Great Khan contemplates his empire. This empire is comprised of cities that burden both the earth and humanity, teeming with wealth and commerce, overwhelmed by decorations and administrative duties, intricate with technology and social rankings, massive and ponderous in size (Cities 73).

Now he envisions an empire of cities that are lighter, resembling lace, and believes these cities are preferable (Cities 73). The great irony is that Khan has moved mountains of stone to construct a monument to his own strength, but it is not his strength that built the monument; rather, it is the strength of his slaves. Calvino explicitly discusses the values of lightness and

weight in his lecture "Lightness," one of six lectures he wrote just before his death in 1985. He explains, throughout the centuries there have been two opposing tendencies in literature: one aims to make language weightless, hovering above things like a cloud or even finer, like dust or a magnetic field of impulses. The other strives to give language the weight, density, and concreteness of objects, bodies, and sensations.

Calvino, in his work Six Memos for the Next Millennium, emphasizes the importance of capturing the multitude of facets and attributes of the world. He believes that this helps convey the idea that our world is a well-structured system and follows a clear hierarchy. While the presence of an organized system may appear difficult to find in his novel Invisible Cities, even chaos has its own order.