The Irony of Calvino

In class, we read the fifth page of Italo Calvino´s Invisible Cities and concluded the following:

• ·      Kublain Khan stands for power
• ·      Marco Polo stands for knowledge
• ·      Khan´s empire stands for the life of each individual

Going further on, we concluded that the reader is Khan and the writer is Marco Polo. We are the readers, I am khan, and as I am reading, the writer Marco Polo is feading me with knowledge. The knowledge he was recollected through out his expeditions through Khan´s Empire.

As I continued reading the book, I noticed that there was it did not have a story plot. Every chapter accounts for a new city that Marco Polo is describing. The methods of description are very similar to Hemingway´s. He states the facts of the cities, what he saw, but he leaves his feelings aside. He tells Khan what is special about each city, but leaves him (and us) to feel what we want about the cities.

All of the descriptions of the cities got me thinking about the title of the book. Invisible Cities. Can this be possible? The title is ironic. A city is composed of elements: roads, building, forests, cars, schools, houses, ext. All of these things can be evoked by the 5 senses; therefore they are not invisible.  In page 10, Marco Polo defines what cities consists of “of relationships between the measurements of its spaces and the events of it´s past.”

Another irony present in the book is the empire. It is huge, made up of many cities and all is under the power of one man: Kahn. If one is the ruler of something he or she should know everything that has to do with it. Yet, Kahn does not even know all the languages: “the emperor  is he who is foreigner to each of his subjects…” (page 21)