Human perception and myth in Calvino's Invisible Cities

Calvino's Invisible Cities is a different take on the novel. It disposes of the traditional chronological narrative and organizes the story according to themes such as cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and names, etc.… The novel's thematic organization allows Calvino to de-emphasize the traditional characteristics of cities, such as their material structure and their uniqueness from other cities.

Calvino uses this thematic narrative to emphasize what is common to all cities. Thesis: For Calvino, what is common to all cities is the role of human perception, colored by desire and fear, in creating those cities, which can exist for us only as myths. Because our desires and fears persist no matter the city we are in, all cities are ultimately the same until we can live independent of desire and fear.

The Significance of Calvino's Juxtapositions

Dreams and Fears

Calvino posits that cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears. (Calvino 44). That is, our perception of the city, and our perception of its consequences, are the only aspects of the city that actually matter to us. Marco proves this when he points out that the curious, power-hungry Kublai "…take[s] delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours." (Calvino 44).

He demonstrates the similarities between cities and dreams by showing that they are all rooted in desires and fears. "With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear." Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears…" (Calvino 44). Kublai later demonstrates this as he thinks about the network of cities in his empire, thinking of the enormous trade and production that will occur, only to later worry that the empire is being crushed by its own weight. (73).

Ideologies and Myths

Calvino teaches that, for humans, cities exist most significantly as myths. In attempting to describe the city of Aglaura, Marco observes what he can say from having lived in the city will never be as "real" as the myths formulated about the city. The inhabitants reports' of the city's "…proverbial virtues,… proverbial faults, a few eccentricities…," are an "…enduring assortment of qualities…" attributed to Aglaura by ancient observers. (Calvino 66) Marco laments that "…these accounts create a solid and compact image of a city, whereas the haphazard opinions which might be formed from living there have less substance." (Calvino 66).

Calvino points out that there are always two cities which exist, "…the city that people speak of and the city that exists on its site." (Calvino 66). Clearly, a different city exists for the city's inhabitants, who believe that the city will exist as such no matter what Marco's experience of the city indicates. Such myths that we construct about of our city and others are part of what Calvino calls the "…invisible reasons which make the cities live…" (Calvino 136).

Aspirations and Disillusionments

Calvino's descriptions provide insight into each individual's inner journey by picking apart the elements of our outer journeys, through our travels. Calvino also shows that our experience of a city has more to do with ourselves than with the city. Cities are usually too large for any one person to explore completely. Thus, our experience of any city is always incomplete, the product of our limited experience of the city.

Furthermore, Calvino shows that all of our reality is never an objective reality, but a subjective reality determined by our desires. When describing the miniature models of Fedora housed in Fedora's museum, Marco reflects that every visitor to the museum chooses the city that corresponds to his desires, contemplates it, and imagines himself enjoying it. (Calvino 32).

Lessons Derived from Calvino's Paradoxical Descriptions of the City

On a deeper level, Calvino's descriptions point us to the importance of the present moment, as that is all we ever have and all we ever need. Our journeys and our travels themselves come from restlessness, which we disguise as curiosity or ambition. This restlessness is reflection of the human mind's incessant anxiety, borne out of a deep sense of lack. This sense of lack renders us unable to be happy with where we are at.

Through his descriptions of the mundane happenings in each city, Calvino aims to teach us about the joy available in the present moment in our present location. Kublai asks Marco why he chooses to report such mundane details of these fascinating cities: "..you can only tell me thoughts that come to a man who sits on his doorstep at evening to enjoy the cool air. What is the use, then, of all your traveling?" To this question, Marco replies that "It is evening. We are seated on the steps of your palace. There is a slight breeze." (Calvino 27). Marco is teaching Kublai that life in their current location consisted of the same experiences as life in that distant location that Kublai desired to know so much about.

Marco's description was meant to point Kublai back to the present moment by showing him that life did not change much from place to place. At the footsteps of Kublai's palace, as at the doorsteps of that distant resident's house, life consisted of men sitting in front of their homes enjoying a slight breeze. Marco advises Kublai that he "would do as well never moving from here." (Calvino 27).

The reason that life does change much from moment to moment is because humans do not change much from place to place. In each place, humans will be saddled with ambitions as well as fears. The only meaningful difference between individuals is in one's capacity to enjoy the present moment. For Marco, this quality makes the common man enjoying the cool breeze enviable, while making the Khan, who is speculating on foreign threats, pitiable. (Calvino 27).

Calvino mocks ambitions by showing that journeys take place solely in the future and the past. However, the future and the past are always just illusions, transient and unstable. The past is always changing as one experiences new places, becoming more accurate and clear to us. "The more one was lost in unfamiliar quarters of distant cities, the more one understood the other cities he had crossed to arrive there…" (Calvino, 28). That the past can change proves that it is not a real, stable entity, but rather an illusion created by desire and fear.

Conclusion

Calvino's deconstruction of cities, and the journeys leading to them, might seem to wring the joy out of travel. However, this is not Calvino's intent. Calvino means to teach that one can derive no true joy from travel if one is experiencing the idea of a city, rather than the city itself. One can never truly experience a city unless when is immersed in the present moment.