Calvino Reading Journal Entry

Writing Assignment #1:

1. A) Diomira
B) “…and from the terrace a women’s voice cried ooh!”
C) home, shelter, happiness

2. A) Isidora
B) “…buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells.”
C) wanting

3. A) Dorothea
B) “…four aluminum towels rise from its walls flanking seven gates…”
C) quantity, newness

4. A) Zaira
B) “…hanged usurper’s swaying feet…”
C) movement

5. A) Anastasia
B) “…one morning your desires awaken all at once and surround you…”
C) sin

6. A) Tamara
B) “tiger’s passage”
C) fakeness, mystery

7. A) Zora
B) “…your gaze runs over patterns following one another as in a musical score…”
C) remembering

8. A) Despira
B) “…an embroidered saddle with glittering fringe between two spotted humps…”
C) separation, opposites

9. A) Zirma
B) “city’s spires”
C) repetition

10. A) Isaura
B) “…the rock’s calcareous sky.”
C) controlling water/nature, domination

11. A) Maurilia
B) “…young ladies with white parasols in the place of the munitions factory.”
C) missing

12. A) Fedora
B) “…a possible future became only a toy in a glass globe.”
C) fantasy

13. A) Zoe
B) “…the rumble of wheels from the howl of wolves?”
C) confusion

14. A) Zenobia
B) “undecipherable”
C) undistinguishable

15. A) Euphemia
B) “golden muslin”
C) story-telling

16. A) Zobeide
B) “…streets wound about themselves as in a skein.”
C) fruitless pursuit

17. A) Hypatia
B) “…crabs were biting the eyes of the suicides.”
C) loneliness

18. A) Armilia
B) “underground veins”
C) wonder

19. A) Chloe
B) “a tattooed giant”
C) disconnection

20. A) Valdrada
B) “railed parapets”
C) consequence

21. A) Olivia
B) “…fringed cushions on the seats by the mullioned windows.”
C) illusion

22. A) Sophronia
B) “…the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists…”
C) fragmentation

23. A) Eutropia
B) “declivity”
C) renewal, rebirth

24. A) Zemrude
B) “…gaze down along the drainpipes and we can no longer detach it from the cobblestones.”
C) monotony

25. A) Agiaura
B) “…punctilious regard for rules…”
C) falsehood

26. A) Octavia
B) “spider-web city”
C) danger

27. A) Ersilia
B) “…spider webs of intricate relationships seeking a form…”
C) emptiness

28. A) Baucis
B) “long flamingo legs”
C) detachment

29. A) Leandra
B) “Gods of two species”
C) conflict

30. A) Melania
B) “…a hundred thousand king’s sons fallen in low estate and awaiting recognition.”
C) infinity

31. A) Esmeralda
B) “…dominating from every point of their airy paths all the points of the city…”
C) perpetual newness

32. A) Phyllis
B) “onion dome”
C) elusiveness

33. A) Pyrrha
B) “yellowish dust flies”
C) all-knowing

34. A) Adelma
B) “…kaleidoscope of eyes, wrinkles, grimaces…”
C) death, after-life

35. A) Eudoxia
B) “arabesques”
C) divinity

36. A) Moriana
B) “…the shadows of dancing girls with silvery scales swim beneath the medusa-shaped chandeliers…”
C) hiding

37. A) Clarice
B) “chipped grimcracks”
C) torment

38. A) Eusapia
B) “…lathers the cheekbones of an actor learning his role, studying the script with hollow sockets…”
C) ambiguity, underworld

39. A) Beersheba
B) “fingernail-cuttings”
C) idealism, perfection

40. A) Leonia
B) “…street cleaners are welcomed as angels…”
C) cleanliness v. waste

41. A) Irene
B) “…a hazy glow smells like a milky sponge…”
C) generality, similarity

42. A) Argia
B) “worm tunnels”
C) darkness, Hell

43. A) Thekla
B) “…he sees cranes putting up other cranes…”
C) industry, technology

44. A) Trude
B) “…looking through the same goblets at the same swaying navels…”
C) trap, imprisonment

45. A) Olinda
B) “flow of lymph”
C) never-ending growth

46. A) Laudomia
B) “eggplant-colored barracans”
C) life vs. death, insignificance

47. A) Perinthia
B) “…the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters…”
C) perverse divinity

48. A) Procopia
B) “…a stretch of blue sky shaped like a trapeze…”
C) overwhelming

49. A) Raissa
B) “…the bent heads at least conceal the gentle grim gaze…”
C) simple pleasures

50. A) Andria
B) “…cogs in a meticulous clockwork…”
C) connection, consequence

51. A) Cecilia
B) “…driving a tinkling flock along the walls…”
C) ambiguity

52. A) Marozia
B) “…transparent as a dragonfly…”
C) rebirth

53. A) Penthesilea
B) “…a street if scrawny shops with fades amid patches of leprous countryside…”
C) vast emptiness

54. A) Theodora
B) “progeny”
C) dominance

55. A) Berenice
B) “fried squash flowers”
C) justice v. injustice

The narrator in Calvino’s work is Marco Polo. Historically, Marco Polo was a great traveler and discoverer, going to many places that not many men had ventured to before. In Calvino’s work, there seems to be an overarching theme of old versus new, a world in which he morphs different times and eras together into his stories of invisible cities. Perhaps Calvino chose to have Marco Polo be the narrator in order to stay with this theme, linking the past with the present and creating an imaginary world in which time knows no boundaries. Having Marco Polo be the narrator of stories of invisible cities also implies that there is still much to be discovered in the world, which gives the reader hope that they can make discoveries just as Marco Polo did.

Occasionally Calvino changes the point of view of his descriptions of cities from first person narrative, first person omniscient, and third person narrative. I believe Calvino does this so that the reader can imagine the cities from different points of view, either as cities visited by Marco Polo himself, cities visited by Kublai Khan in his own imagination, or as cities visited by the reader (him)herself. The different points of view also give a sense of who is actually able to visit the cities: Marco Polo or the reader. In the third person narrative, it seems possible for the reader to visit the invisible cities whereas in the first person narrative or first person omniscient, the cities seem more distant or inaccessible. Moreover, perhaps the changes in point of view have to do with the fact that, in reality, all fifty-five invisible cities are the same one. The reader does not fully discover this fact until near the end of the book, and the changes in point of view could be a way to confuse the reader initially in order to eventually lead them to the conclusion that Marco Polo is talking about a single city.