“It is the desperate moment when we discover that this empire, which had seemed to us the sum of all wonders, is an endless formless ruin.”
In Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino seems to contrast a rigid outline structure with a flexible textual content. This is due to the numerical structure proposed in the novels index and the fluidity among each of the independent "utopias" described as cities. The opposition between form and content seem to serve as fruitful dichotomy in the conception of the novel itself. But why create such a complex outline for the reader, yet open the door for them to interchangeably read your work?
Here are some possibilities
By checking the index, the reader will detect a total of nine chapters in the book. A more detailed inspection will reveal an interesting progression of titles and numbers. You will notice this succession follows an orderly sequence and the use of a substitution principle, which in other words means that if A is equal to B than B is equal to A. Though the criterion employed by the author at first may seem like a rare coincidence or to many others be a display of profound symbolism that is way beyond your own personal knowledge, it is actually an indicative of a method applied in the organization of the book.
Whether the reader chooses to explore it by examining the texts under the topics proposed (Cities & Desire, Cities & the Dead, etc.), or by analyzing all the narratives which fall under a specific number on the index, according to the sequence 54321; Calvino’s Invisible Cities seems to unlock its texts to a range of possible ways of reading. Which can only mean that its’ bundled disposition allows the blocks to be individualized without loss for its entirety. In essence, Calvino’s procedure consists in using a “framework” to bring together the short narratives which form the book, giving a sense of closure. Which results in the precision of structure set down in the index being an attempt to place meaning to the book for the readers own comfort, which in larger picture terms is the constant display of us humans trying to give significance to life. 