In this class, a basic discussion of 5 chapters that we were asked to read from the book invisible cities was done. After this, Malvika read and we discussed the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Even though it’s called a novel, Invisible Cities flouts from the conventional features of a novel. There exists no plot or character development. Instead, it is an accumulation of fifty-five short, highly impressionistic pastiches of arbitrarily named cities. The descriptions of these cities are arranged in eleven groups in Calvino’s text: Cities and Memory, Cities and Desire, Cities and Signs, Thin Cities, Trading Cities, Cities and Eyes, Cities and Names, Cities and the Dead, Cities and the Sky, Continuous Cities, and Hidden Cities. The book is very interesting and really pushes your imagination to its peak. It broadens the spectrum and allows the reader to imagine and interpret the text from an individual perspective. I kept wondering where are all these cities, what triggered his imagination.
Initially, it was hard to wrap my head around what was written and how to interpret it. But once I got more acquainted to it, it was very fascinating to read, elucidate and broaden my imagination.
We wrote the main keywords of every chapter we read in class today:
Esmeralda – developing city, adventurous, trading, waterways and canals network.
Aglaura – colorless, monotonous, rules and customs, characterless.
Octavia – spider web, thin cities, uncertainty, carefulness, network,
Euphemia – story-telling, memories,
Sophronia – half cities, distinct, uprooted and dismantled.
Baucis – Structured uncertainty, thin , fulfilment, , contemplation, fascinations.
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