![]() ![]() ![]() Seeing our cities transform at a dizzying pace, the nostalgia for what was, the itch to travel and see more - at times, returning deflated, because a city wasn't what one expected it to be or exalted because it was beyond expectations, there's a lot one can identify with. Akin to extensive travelling, evoking in one destination, reminisces about another. And the mind refuses to accept more faces, more expressions on every new face you encounter, it prints the old forms, for each one it finds the most suitable mask."Īt a certain stage in life, one has established so many acquaintances, that henceforth, each person brings another to mind. "You reach a moment in life when among the people you've known, the dead outnumber the living. Fascinating perspective on what the earth would be if humans were removed from the equation. This was the city where the residents didn't establish contact with the land because of the respect they had for it. ![]() contemplating with fascination their own absence." When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave, the houses are dismantled, only the strings and their supports remain."īeautiful concept with the threads panning out, each signifying a connection, beginning afresh, when the connections become overwhelming. "In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city's life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black and white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. What is the use, then, of all your travelling?" "You return from lands equally distant and you can tell me only the thoughts that come to a man who sits on his doorstep at evening to enjoy the cool air. Connected intangibles, like inspiration to think, be a certain way, how they make one feel, the same point represents totally diverse meanings to each individual. The way we identify with it is not just about its layout and sights. Keeping it simple, Calvino doesn't overwhelm with treatises, letting the reader infer.Ī city is more than a geographical point. The book is a dialogue, debate, observation, discourse, fantasy. Kubla Khan, the emperor and Marco Polo, the explorer converse about fictitious cities, bringing into play, a multitude of observations, human experience entails. My first Calvino read, has inspired me to read more by him. Venice, that decaying heap of incomparable splendour, still stands as substantial evidence of man's ability to create something perfect out of chaos ― Times Literary Supplement So important for thinking about the rich layers of life around us, our frailties, how we question and how we find meaning. Each time he returns from his travels, Marco Polo is invited by Kublai Khan to describe the cities he has visited-Although he makes Marco Polo summon up many cities for the Khan's imagination to feed on, Calvino is describing only one city in this book. The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island Whole chapters of unforced poetic prose in which insight and fantasy are perfectly matched-an exquisite world ― Observer 'Invisible Cities is perhaps his most beautiful work-the artist seems to have made peace with the tension between man's ideas of the many and the one ― New York Review of Books The most beautiful of his books throws up ideas, allusions, and breathtaking imaginative insights on almost every page. Invisible Cities changed the way we read and what is possible in the balance between poetry and prose.
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