"Falsehood is never in words, it is in things."

"Cities and Desire." After reading these three words, I thought the cities in this category would be happy ones, unlike those in "Cities and Memory." I thought they'd be filled with what everyone wanted. But no, I was completely wrong.

In "Cities and Desire" people are not busy enjoying what they want and have, but instead, wishing for a lot more (which is similar to how they were in "Cities and Memory" where they were too busy thinking about what they used to have). This is especially evident in Fedora, where people spend their time at a museum looking at models of what their city could have been like. It is similar in Despina, where people arriving by ship would much rather have been in the desert the entire time, and people who came through the desert would much rather have come by boat. It is not only in this book that people want something different than what they have. It definitely happens in our society all the time. Isn't this what jealousy is?

However, it is not only what others have that we want. We just want more... all the time. "You believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you are only it's slave," writes Calvino on page 12. How awful to be manipulated this way, right? But it's exactly what happens in our society today. We buy and buy, believing it's the key to happiness. It could even be considered as a kind of competition amongst people, to see who is able to purchase the most items. Some even consider the victor to be the most powerful. Yet, in reality, while we believe we are the winners, we are being manipulated. By buying, we have become the slaves of consumerism, and the real winners are the ones getting us to buy everything. And it's working really well. Most of us are too busy wishing for what we don't have, and just keep on buying thinking our desires can someday be fulfilled.