It’s possible to describe Dorothea by listing its exports however, as a camel driver told Marco Polo once said about Dorothea, the city opens up horizons for people. A person can find every delight in Isidora, but men arrive there when they’re old, not young. People who see it from afar feel envy, thinking that they’ve experienced similar evenings and were happy. Marco Polo describes a city named Diomira with many towers. Through Marco’s stories, Kublai begins to see that there are patterns in his empire and realizes it can be fixed. He feels that his empire is too large for him to understand and worries about its corruption. Kublai Khan is listening to Marco Polo describe the cities he’s seen, but doesn’t entirely believe him. Then there is Marco Polo who has many adventures to report, but are they real, or just strung together experiences of illusion? These philosophical positions are not new, but the experience of them is in the way that I like to be challenged by the new.1-Page Summary of Invisible Cities Overall Summary Well, even that is up for grabs in the end, as who has the handle on reality-the adventurer or the intllectual? At one point, Kublai Khan has reduced everything to nothing more than a chess game, black versus white, but in so doing, he looses all meaning. Sounds simple, but we realize that Marco Polo is the experiential adventurer in the world, while Kublai Khan is the intellectual summarizer of Marco Polo's experiences. The story is of tales of cities visited by Marco Polo, as told to Kublai Khan. I'm still in the rabbit hole, and don't know what I may have been smoking. Having just read Invisible Cities by Calvino today, just about everything is at least swirling in newness of possibilities, like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, or Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's travels.
Normally I listen to these things at like 2x but for this story it was much better to slow it down to close to normal speed and let the images wash over you. John Lee's narration works well with the story. And the cities are all imaginative and strange and there is a weaving meta story about how Polo and the Kahn communicate and about the nature of cities and imagination and dreams. It's a book about Marco Polo telling stories to Kublai Kahn about the cities he has visited. Look, Invisible Cities clearly doesn't fit into the mold of these pre-written questions. There are only strange twisting vignettes of cities, the most wonderful cities. Perhaps there is only one character and it is one city and if that is the case, then the city is my favorite character in the book.ĭid you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry? Perhaps the cities are the real characters. There are barely two characters, Marco Polo and Kublai Kahn and it is uncertain whether they are even real. Which character – as performed by John Lee – was your favorite? When the swallows danced in the skies above the city made of pathways, both known and unknown. What was one of the most memorable moments of Invisible Cities? John Lee's narration offers an almost meditative tone-poem of the book. They are different from one another and I am glad to own both. Would you consider the audio edition of Invisible Cities to be better than the print version? Very short, just over 2 hours something I will leave on my ipod and listen to again, like a beautiful and creative guided meditation. Close your eyes and experience a journey. Reading this was wonderful listening is another experience altogether. You ponder the meaning of the words as they are used in this game between the two men, as well as the structure of the cities and their purpose. He creates his own cities that might dwell in his empire, asking Polo if he has seen these in his travels. There is no plot - but plot seems irrelevant as you listen to Marco Polo conjure up cities that float between webs, joyous carnival cities, serious cities where no one makes eye contact or speaks, cities that you won't be returning to, "this is a city just for leaving," all to entertain the aging Kublai Khan. Originally published in 1972 with a cover that depicted a city of stone towers that rise from a large floating rock above an ocean a picture that teased and hinted at what was inside (I still own my original dog-eared copy). It is like a fabulous dessert - it needs to be experienced, savored, and languished over. The words flow through your mind and spark the imagination, leading the listener on a guided imagery trip through worlds that seem suspended in another dimension and time.
INVISIBLE CITIES BY ITALO CALVINO SERIES
Less a book than a series of prose-like poems, where language seems a magical tool that paints landscapes and cityscapes not confined by just what is known or possible.
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