TOS Assignment 4: Invisible Cities - A Review

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"To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor."

-Frank Lloyd Wright

Yes, a city is nothing but a tumor. It thrives, lives, survives, but eventually it dies. In the quest for the ideal city, one must hear tales of all cities imaginable, to know what to edit and what to omit. 'Invisible Cities' by Italo Calvino does exactly that. A poetic dialogue between the emperor of the Tartars, Kublai Khan and the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, sets the premise for fifty five vivid paintings of cites that have never been, and can never be. It transcends the barriers of time and reality, and describes people, their aspirations, there external stimuli and reactions and thus, the city.

What is special about the book is that it is so specific and detailed, that images of different cities come flooding to one's head, but then again it generalizes the basis of all these cities; the universal truth - rise and fall - a cycle.

The dialogue between the traveler and the emperor, constantly emphasizes the fact that a city is only what one perceives it to be. In that sense it is an illusion, cause it changes for person to person, but at the same time different cities are so similar, when kept in perspective, due to the occurrence of similar needs and activities.

The  author very boldly states "Why" and "How" cities come up. He says that a city is made either to fulfill desires, or out of fear. It is a very poignant way of summarizing that a person or a set of people, aspire to live in  a certain kind of place which leads to the creation of a city, keeping their desires in mind. Or the city could be a product of shear human nature - to huddle together for protection, out of fear.

As for the "How", correspondingly, a city is either planned by the mind, or a matter of shear chance. This infact, is the common thread that somewhere, connects all cities.

The author has touched upon most aspects of a city, right from the sewer systems down below, to sprawling gardens, but most importantly, the people who inhabit the city. All these aspects have been equated with vossoirs, and the city, an arch. As Marco Polo rightly says, "Without stones, there is no arch."

While talking about his travels, Polo often crosses the line of reality, for instance his description of the city of Cecilia, the one you can never leave, or Irene, the one you can never reach. However, these liberties drive home the fact that the cities being described are not existent in the same way that he describes them. Infact, they are merely certain aspects of a larger city, a city which encompasses all the invisible ones. In Polo's case, the city is Venice, but when you come to think of it, its true for any city. One can find a Theodora, a Fedora or a Cecilia in every city, even if just metaphorically.

In my opinion, most of the cities that have been described, are tangible interpretations of human nature, which is what makes them so expressive and iconic. However , the abstractionism of the conversation between Khan and Polo, is what made me delve deeper, in an attempt to 'read between the lines'. Reading and re-reading parts of the book made me realize something new each time.

"Invisible Cities" compels you to not just think, but imagine.  And above all, it makes you take a broader look at where we stand today and where we are headed, as a race, as settlers.

And Polo said: 'The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day,

that we form by being together.'




[Assignment for 'Theory of Settlements'; Date of Submission 3/09/2010]