Invisible Cities

When I read this as a child, I was expecting something along the lines of a book of fantastical lore, so it left me feeling rather confused in a nice way - there was something enigmatic about each 'city' that I couldn't pin down. Returning to this book now as an adult, the stories have lost the engimatic quality but in its place I'm surprised by how relatable and resonating they are! And I finally understand what the first stage of the book was getting at now! This is an enchanting book, but it will be enchanting for different reasons depending on where you are in your life. I'll probably read it again in a few years' time and see if it's once again a different experience.

Una fuente de inspiración para filósofos y arquitectos en ese periodo en el que nuestras mentes están cargadas de imagnacion

My first Calvino read, has inspired me to read more by him. Kubla Khan, the emperor and Marco Polo, the explorer converse about fictitious cities, bringing into play, a multitude of observations, human experience entails. The book is a dialogue, debate, observation, discourse, fantasy. Keeping it simple, Calvino doesn't overwhelm with treatises, letting the reader infer. A city is more than a geographical point. The way we identify with it is not just about its layout and sights. 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. "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. What is the use, then, of all your travelling?" My favourite lines from the book - "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. 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." Beautiful concept with the threads panning out, each signifying a connection, beginning afresh, when the connections become overwhelming. "Baucis residents.. contemplating with fascination their own absence." This was the city where the residents didn't establish contact with the land because of the respect they had for it. Fascinating perspective on what the earth would be if humans were removed from the equation. "You reach a moment in life when among the people you've known, the dead outnumber the living. 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." At a certain stage in life, one has established so many acquaintances, that henceforth, each person brings another to mind. Akin to extensive travelling, evoking in one destination, reminisces about another. 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.

Good

Great read, interesting, fun, and fantastical.