Another question I had was why pick Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, two historical figures, to star in this fictitious story? Why not Alexander the Great and some other merchant traveler?
The last question I thought of was this: did Christopher Nolan, the director of Inception, read this book? Calvino writes, "With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear" (44). In Inception anything can be dreamed, but secrets are always hidden in the dream. The secrets are fears, desires, valuable information, and they all need to be concealed. Coincidentally, most of the dreams created in Inception take place within cities. The creation of these cities using a character's mind is weirdly similar to Polo and Khan making up their own cities. One phrase Polo said, "the lake of our mind" (117), is very much like the idea of 'the shore of your unconscious', which, in Inception, is literally a beach where people get washed up when they get stuck in the dream world (their unconscious). Maybe these similarities are purely coincidental and the philosophy behind the two works is a common idea. Or maybe Christopher Nolan was inspired by Calvino.
I'll end this post with my favorite city in the hopes that some of you liked it too. While I was reading I was always trying to figure out which city stuck out most to me, but that was very hard to do considering it seems the point of the novel is to make all the cities blend together into one. But, I was still able to remember one: Octavia ("Thin Cities" #5). This one stayed in my mind probably because the idea of a 'spider-web city' is outrageous. It seems that Polo became a little carried away when inventing this city. Octavia is definitely one of the more abnormal cities described in the novel. The dark thought that "the life of Octavia's inhabitants is less uncertain than in other cities [because] they know the net will last only so long" (75) really stuck with me.
Carolyn, you have so many great questions that hopefully will generate a thread of discussion. I had never thought of the connections to Inception, but there are many. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Calvino was one of Nolan's influences.
ReplyDeleteI also asked myself why Kublai Khan and Marco Polo were the characters in this book. I don't see why any other two people could've gotten the messages from the book across just as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, although I didn't make the connections to Inception that you did (that's one of those movies I've never gotten around to seeing for myself), I did have that quote about dreams on page 44 underlined in my book. The part that got me thinking the most was right after the part you pointed out when he says, "Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fear" (44). I think people go to cities because of their desires for a different lifestyle, but along with offering opportunities, a city is full of danger, and that's where the fears come from. Therefore, as Marco Polo says, "Cities…are made of desires and fear" (44).
Personally, I didn't make the Inception connection myself, but I think that it is a really cool idea to explore! I also loved the connection between dreams and cities especially in the aforementioned quote on page 44. I love the idea that in both cities and dreams is where people subconsciously express their desires and fears through the means that they would not actually use in their personal life. It seems like some kind of safety net, so they can try something they really want, or confront something they are afraid of without having to deal with the repercussions of their actions. (I know in my dreams I've hung out with way more lions than I would ever feel comfortable doing in real life.) I find dreams to be a very interesting kind of insight into people's lives, so I also really enjoy exploring the relationship between dreams and cities and viewing cities as windows into the lives of its inhabitants.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. I think the general theme here is that a city offers so much to a person. The possibilities of what you can do in a city are almost infinite because what you see and what you encounter depends on so many factors, especially desires and fears (just like the quote on p.44 says). A city is like a dream because you can make of it what you will.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been thinking about why the chapters are numbered and organized the way they are. Its a very rigid, planned, almost mathematical structure. Some cities can be just as planned and structured, such as New York City, but then again, other cities can be a little more haphazard, like Boston. I don't know if this is a plausible connection.
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