"The
Great Khan deciphered the signs, but the connection between them and the places
visited remained uncertain..."
Since
the vague beginning of the novel Marco Polo has taken the role of writer and
narrator, which leaves us as the readers, to assimilate with Kublai Khan who
serves as Marco Polo's audience. As mentioned in my previous blog, the book is
divided into categories by their titles and though Calvino presents the index
as a rigid outline, there are numerous ways of reading its context. When I began
reading, I noticed that though each city is individually distinct, they are all
built upon the same base. None of these cities are built of simple bricks and
mortar. They are full of domes, crystal, curved arcades, aluminum springs,
banisters and many other grand architectural designs. Once they have parted
from this rather similar base, each city deals with different themes. The
Cities & Memory for example
are all philosophical stories experimenting with nostalgia and decline.
Though
each of these cities are somehow correlated, I don't yet seem to understand
really what it is that Calvino is expecting for us as readers to deduce from
his piece. The Great Khan himself understands the individual characteristics
that predominate each of the cities described to him, yet the overall
connection and significance of these still remains uncertain.
So
thats it. I am left in the abyss of uncertainty. Each scenario must eventually
tie into a larger picture or maybe it is simply another attempt to give the
insignificant a meaning. It’s writing about a writing that I hope I will some
day come to understand.
