The Cities

Asthe book continues it is evident how the cities have nothing to do with eachother, they are completely isolated and non relatable. Yet there is one way thecities con be interconnected. Human characteristics, if not humans themselvesare explained in every city. Calvino can describe a city with humancharacteristics like greed, memories, organization, patterns or can describethem through the persons that Marco Polo meets in his traveling: tempting,artistic, dreamful, and resourceful.

Themost confusing aspect of the book is the narration. It varies from first personto second person. Obvious that first person narrates form the point of view ofMarco Polo, yet the second person is hard to comprehend. Is Marco Polo talkingto the readers, or to Kublai Khan? Are the readers as important to be addressedby Marco Polo, or is it a simple dialogue between both characters.

Diomira: In Spanish the word means important women in the village. Polomentions the arrival to Diomira happens in September, spring time, meaningbirth the revival after winter. “From a terrace a woman’s voice cries ooh!, isthat he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived anevening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time” (PG. 7).The joy a mother feels at birth, and the simplicity of a child coming to life,is compared to the elaborated description of the city, Diomira’s architectonicfeatures and decorations. The memory of birth.

Isidora:  Saint Isidora is Christiannun, one of the earliest fools of Christ. It is worth mentioning that Calvinowas a great devotee of the church. Isidora is a city of dreams, one that grabsyou and does not let you go. Contrary to Diomira, the architectonic features ofthis city are angelical like heaven, and the people are the ones that createthe atrocities in Isidora. It was a city that anybody would dream of, “old mensit and watch the young go by; he is seated in a row with them. Desires arealready memories.” (PG.8). Nothing is done to change what happens here.

Dorothea: This city is full of patterns and numbers which are a vitalpart to the organization of it. “Four aluminum towers...seven gates…four greencanals...nine quarters...three hundred houses…seven hundred chimneys.”(PG.9)Due to the strict regimen of the city everybody collaborates with each other,through lending, borrowing or gifting. An industrially developed city whichwould be the desire an covet of any one.

Zaira: Is a city that can be interpreted as a river. By Marco Polo’sfirst descriptions of it “arcades’ curves, and zinc scales that covered theroof” (PG.10), but more than the physical aspects of this city is whatconstructed it and what we can see now. The city tells a story as the path leftby the river does. The problem is what gave shape to the city in the beginningdetermines most of what happens today in Zaira. The lines of the river arewritten in the hard drive of Zaira’s history, its memories.

Anastasia: This city is kind of an oasis; Polo tells us you will find itafter three days of enduring travel through the desert. Full of minerals itgives us the idea one can be resurrected in that place. Yet it is also thegarden of eve, and an apple. Knowing how wounded up you will be when you arrivehere; you will be received with commodities. These commodities will later turninto temptations, which will drag you down turning the city a living hell. “Foreight hours a day you work…your labor which gives form to desire takes fromdesire its form, and you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you areonly its slave” (PG. 12)