Role-Play

When you pick up the book Invisible Cities for the second time, you expect to finally start understanding what the author is really getting at. This section, however, starts with an “imaginary” conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, where one assumes what the other is asking and imagines a response according to that. This shows the relationship between Calvino and the reader. Since Calvino couldn’t possibly meet all of his readers and answer their questions, he was forced to imagine what questions the book would arouse, and attempt to answer them as best as he can.

If we think about it from a Shakespearean point of view, there is really no need for these questions because life means nothing, so what you chose to do with it shouldn’t matter either. Calvino states that it is pointless trying to decide whether Zenobia is to be classified among happy cities or among the unhappy” (pg 35.) What one should be asking him or herself is what makes a city happy? And at the same time, what makes a person happy? However, if we look upon the story in the same way Shakespeare viewed Macbeth and his story, this wouldn’t hold any importance, because life is meaningless after all.

As you continue to read, you become more identified with Kublai Khan’s feelings and questions regarding the city, and the more you read the more you realize you are Kublai Khan, and Calvino is Marco Polo, trying to explain the complexities of humankind to an idle audience. “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful and everything stands for something else.” (pg 44)