Re: Invisible Cities

One of the book being read by the class is Invisible Cities by an Italian writer, Italo Calvino. The style of the writing is very beautiful and poetic of these fantastical cities which inspire much awe and wonder in the narrator. As he says in his book "When Polo began to talk about how life must be in those places... words failed him". I was very moved by these descriptions, and so I wish to attempt to create my own city in the same style of writing. I recommend reading the book to anyone who has an active imagination with an analytical eye, and please feel free to give feedback on my interpretation of the writing. Readings from the book are available here.

Cities and Desire


Along the coast there is there is the city of Jerdeania, a place you would not believe was real until you saw the two islands that seem to have just rose out of the ocean. The city may have been build many years ago, but the ocean has since destroyed the land it had been built on. From these great uplifts of land you see buildings built on cliffs held together by the metal pipes, as metal roots for the growing building keeping the city stable. The city seems to have been growing up for years now. The two sides of the city are similar, so obviously started by the same people, yet they are separated by this great canyon nature has created between them. The city to the north seems to be populated by the most beautiful and desirable women in the world that seem content living their lives within the isolation that the island provides. The island more to the south is inhabited by men who seem pleased to be going about their daily tasks absent of the diverse humanity waiting in the outside world. These men and women are separated by the waves of the violent ocean swirling under the foundation which they live on and by, seemingly ignorant to anything not on the cliff city.
As the tide lowers with the sun, there is a sense of restlessness that develops within the citizens of Jerdeania, and almost by magic the eyes of a man and woman lock across the great canyon that separates them. There is an animistic instinct that breaks through and the couple knows to that the new calm waters are the conditions of the transaction that is between them. Before their minds can catch up, their bodies are naked and falling down to the salty foam that welcomes them. This spreads through the city like a disease until all the buildings are abandoned with piles of useless clothing to the blissful populous now playing gayly in the water naturally with genders different from their own. The beautiful nudity seems a new experience for the citizens and enjoy the compatibility that they have now discovered with the sun disappearing into the water. Yet with the green flash of the vanished sun, the passion is gone, the mind takes over once again and the naked bodies must separate and climb up the cliffs from which they had fallen and contentment returns to the citizens of Jerdeania. As the ocean becomes once again relentless, the people must once again separate, until the next calming of the waters. A city built against nature must become one with it.