Calvino and I: Homeless

Means of transportation are like the flow of blood through veins. They might take different routes, become clogged or increase in speed. However, the blood will always arrive at the heart.

Clavino describes many of the cities he visited in section six, as places characterized by their infrastructure. The city of Esmeralda (Trading Cities–5), Phyillis (Cities and Eyes–4), and Pyrrha (Cities and Names–3) design's are based on slopes, bridges, canals, allies, and spider webs. Calvino says Esmeralda's inhabitants "are spared the boredom of following the same streets every day." (ph.88) Calvino is simply stating that spontaneous and unconventional events might make life less monotonous. After all it is the risks of taking other pathways that create experiences. Furthermore, after getting lost by exploring different routes, the sentiment of arrival at the destination is much more satisfactory.

The city of Phyllis is not as attractive as other cities. It is messy but artistically unique. "...each different from others: cambered, covered, on pillars, on barges, suspended...variety of windows ...mullioned, Moorish, lancet, pointed....Happy the man who has Phyllis before his eyes each day and who never ceases seeing things it contains,' you cry, with regret at having to leave the city when you can barely graze it with your glance.'" (Pg.90)

Calvino is dying. He is leaving this world. He is leaving his cities: his body, his mind and his legacy. However, he only discovers that his time hasn't run up, yet. All that he once overlooked, or unappreciated once is now holy in his memory.

"Phyllis is a space in which routes are drawn between points suspended in the void: the shortest way to reach the curtain merchant's tent, avoiding that certain creditor's window...Many are the cities like Phyllis, which elude the gaze of all, except the man who catches them by surprise." (pg.91)

Is the man who catches the gazing and eluded man G-d? Along many chapters of Invisible Cities, it has come to my attention that G-d plays a fairly vital role in Calvino's life. He refers to him as a witty judger, who is the cause of all of cities. (G-d has brought Calvino to create his city–his personal empire. Alike the Great Khan, an emperor who is not only the observer of Calvino's spiritual journey literally, but is the representation of us. Khan is a reflection of Calvino's life. And within this reflection their is an individual story–metaliterature. This can be proven by Khans analysis of Calvino's untold cities, by describing mirrored cities, with grand bodies of water which invoke a reflection of the whole city–identical but upside-down.)

Suddenly, Calvino discovers his own death at the mid of section six. Through Cities and Names 3, Cities and the Dead 2, Cities and the Sky 1, Calvino enters in a state of crisis and shock. He understands, that although he managed to oversee all the cities and understand their value, heaven was not as he expected.

Calvino's ideas of heaven are basically about:
1. Heaven–sign of a sign that represents something else.
2. The Khan might also be dead–our personal state of death.
(How do we know were not dead right now? Or dreaming–same thing?)
3. Fisherman in Heaven is G-d.
4. Disappointed with his life progress on morality because he is not responding well to his death.
5. Everything happens for a reason–death is the certain obligation for all. (spider webs, networks)

"So then, yours is truly a journey through memory." (pg. 98)
Are his experiences and stories insignificant? He does not know if the world in which he lives in is real. However it is what he's always known, so what is truly Calvino's reality? What is ours?