"Desires are already memories"

Reading a book is simple: you start on the first page and end with the last one. Not too hard, is it? However, the first thing I had to do with Invisible Cities was decide whether I should read it in order, from page one to 165, or in the order of the chapters' titles. I wanted something that would allow me to understand the book better. I was inclined to decide to read it in the order it was written in, but then decided against it. This way I would get a better idea of what each type of cities were like, and how they related. In the end I would connect them on my own.

And so I began with "Cities and Memory." Evidently, they are about memory. All five cities have one thing in common, and that is that in all of them memories prevent people from enjoying life. In Diomira, those who have already experienced something identical to the present, are too caught up thinking about how happy they were last time. In addition, those who haven't already experienced this, are jealous of those who have. Similarly, Zaira is a city based on only memories. "As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands." (Page 10) It is a city in which everything has to do with the past; it basically is its past. Zora, another one of these cities, is so caught up in being a memory, it ends up being in the past instead f the present, and everyone forgets it.

In Maurilia, Calvino addresses cities in the past versus cities in the present. He criticizes how citizens idealize the past, and live wishing for a place they never knew. However, this place they long for was actually not how they picture it. Calvino proves it by saying "Admitting that the magnificence and prosperity of the metropolis Maurilia, when compare to the old, provincial Maurilia, cannot compensate for a certain lost grace, which, however, can be appreciated only now in the old post cards, whereas before, when that provincial Maurilia was before one's eyes, one saw absolutely nothing graceful and would see it even less today, if Maurilia had remained unchanged." (Page 30) With "postcards" Calvino is probably referring to the elders. They usually talk about the "olden days," which they believe were much better. However, they are probably glorifying the past without even realizing by just showing the good things, just like postcards do.

Isidora is a very similar place. A man spends a lot of time in the "wild regions," which most likely stand for the young years of his life, and then comes to this city. It has spiral staircases with spiral seashells, which symbolize the cycle of life, strengthening the aspect of aging. This city is everything the old man has ever wanted. Well, it's everything he's wished for, except that now he's old. So what does he do instead of enjoying everything? He sits and watches the young go by, making his life a memory instead of a reality.

With these five cities, Calvino is portraying nostalgia and aging. He criticizes how people are too caught up thinking about what other have and about that their past, that they forget to enjoy what they have right then. And it's absolutely true. Little kids spend their youth pretending they're adults and wishing to be as big as their parents. Yet, once we've grown up, we spend a lot of time reminiscing the past. So we never take full advantage and value what we have right now, we're to busy being melancholic about the past and (even though Calvino hasn't mentioned this) worried about the future.