Invisible Cities

Part 8 Introduction

Polo spreads out the treasures he has gathered from his journey before the emperor. Khan, who is a keen chess player, contemplates the objects as if they are one, thinking, “If each city is like a game of chess, the day when I have learned the rules, I shall finally possess my empire, ever if I shall never succeed in knowing all the cities it contains” (109). He charges Polo with describing to him his empire with only giant chessmen as props. Polo obliges and Khan believes that he is witnessing the essential rules of leadership being played out before him. He considers that he does not need to send Polo on endless expeditions and can instead keep him eternally playing chess. However, he becomes flummoxed by what the game’s purpose is and the chess game becomes meaningless, with the board “reduced to a square of planed wood: nothingness” (110).

“Cities and Names 5”

Polo speaks of Irene, a city he has seen from above and not from within. Though Khan expects Polo to talk of Irene’s features from within, this is impossible for Polo, as “if you saw it, standing in its midst, it would be a different city; Irene is a name for a city in the distance, and if you approach, it changes” (112). The city is different for those who pass without going in, just as it is for those who remain there all their lives. He considers that different names ought to be given to cities experienced so differently. Polo is conscious that he has “spoken of Irene under other names” and adds that he has perhaps “spoken only of Irene,” as this maxim applies to other cities too (113).

“Cities and the Dead 4”

The city of Argia made only of earth instead of air. It has an underworld climate with worm tunnels, tree-roots, and decomposing bodies. Those of us in the land of the living “up here” can only know about Argia from secondhand reports (114).

“Cities and the Sky 3”

Thekla is a city which bears evidence of being permanently under construction, “so that its destruction cannot begin” (115). The blueprint of the city is the starry sky at night.

“Continuous Cities 2”

Arriving at Trude, the traveler senses that he has landed at the same airport from which he departed. The impression continues as he traverses suburbs “no different from the others,” with the same features as the suburbs at his point of origin (116). When he expresses the wish to leave, people tell him that he can fly out of Trude, but that wherever he goes, he will arrive at identical places; “the world is covered by a sole Trude which does not begin and does not end” (116). Only the airport name is different.

“Hidden Cities 1”

Olinda “grows in concentric circles,” as new cities form in the existing one (117). Initially, they are microcosms of the city, but then they grow and overtake the original.

“Coda to Part 8”

Khan finds himself unable to concentrate on the chess game, as its purpose eludes him. He does not understand the consequences of loss or gain. Polo points out the features in the maple and ebony woods of the chessboard, the signs of tree-life within them, and by extension the suggestion of life as a whole. Khan is overwhelmed contemplating this.

Part 9 Introduction

Khan owns exhaustive atlases of his empire, but Polo’s tales have made him realize the futility of asking for news of such places. From Polo he has learned “the invisible reasons which make cities live” (123). He asks Polo whether he will tell people in the West the same tales he has told him. Polo replies that the Westerners will not hear the same story,   as it is the listener who retains what is important to them, not the teller.

Khan owns another atlas which depicts the great cities of the past, in addition to those of the future, like San Francisco and New York. Polo thinks that the differences between cities is lost, as each comes to resemble the others, though the atlas is an attempt to preserve their differences. The narrator speculates that “the catalogue of forms is endless” and that “until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born” (126).

“Cities and the Dead 5”

Laudomia is unique in being a triple city: In addition to possessing the necropolis of double cities, it has a third version: the city of the unborn. As with other residents of double cities, Laudomia’s living visit their dead to find an explanation of their civilization. The space of the still-to-be-born is vague, as “the unborn can be imagined of any size, big as mice or silkworms or ants” (127). The inhabitants contemplate them in newfangled clothing and often interrogate them. However, their inquiries are more about how they themselves will be remembered, rather than about those who will succeed them. Unlike the Laudomia of the dead, which offers security, the Laudomia of the unborn only transmits alarm. They are uncertain of the quantity of the unborn, which could exceed the numbers of the living and dead. Either they will continue to be born infinitely, or the city of Laudomia will disappear, meaning that the unborn will only reach a finite number.

“Cities and the Sky 4”

Perinthia’s foundation was set out by astronomers according to the orbits of the stars and the houses of the zodiac, “so that each temple and each neighborhood would receive the proper influence of the favoring constellation” (130). It was thought that the cosmic alignment of the city would be a boon for the inhabitants’ destinies. However, over the generations Perinthia’s population has included “cripples, dwarfs, hunchbacks, obese men, bearded women,” in addition to children born with three heads and six legs (130). This forces the astronomers to conjecture that their calculations went wrong, and such figures do not describe the heavens. Conversely, it is possible that the order of the gods is “reflected exactly in the city of monsters” (130).

“Continuous Cities 3”

Polo visits Procopia each year of his travels. As the years go by, he sees more and more people munching on the corn in a field. The growing population is polite and complacent, even when there are 26 of them in Polo’s room.

“Hidden Cities 2”

Raissa is an unhappy city, full of discontent and bad luck. However, people still find moments of joy in day-to-day occurrences and interactions with one another. It is as though an invisible thread binds “one living being to another for a moment, then unravels, then is stretched again between moving points as it draws new and rapid patterns so that at every second the unhappy city contains a happy city unaware of its own existence” (133).

“Cities and the Sky 5”

The city of Andria is built so that every street follows the orbit of a planet, and the buildings repeat the order and position of constellations. Even ceremonies “are arranged in a map corresponding to the firmament on that date: and thus the days on earth and the nights in the sky reflect each other” (135). Despite the regimentation, the city’s life flows calmly, and there are such wonders as suspended streets opened over bamboo groves. The inhabitants of Andria assure Polo that these innovations do not disturb the city’s astral patterning, as “any change in Andria involves some novelty among the stars” (136). There is an understanding that the stars are also changing in correspondence with Andria. Polo esteems Andria’s combination of self-confidence and prudence; the inhabitants are convinced that the city changes along with them, and they are careful about calculating the potential advantages of any prospective changes.

“Continuous Cities 4”

Polo responds to Khan’s complaint that his tales never mention how his cities connect with the story of Cecilia. In this city, Polo met a goatherd who was incapable of distinguishing cities, just as Polo was incapable of identifying the grazing lands between them.

However, many years and travels later, a lost Polo comes across the same much aged goatherd and asks him where they are. The goatherd answers, “in Cecilia worse luck […] we have been wandering through its streets, my goats and I, for an age, and we cannot find our way out” (138). The goatherd conjectures that all “the places have mingled” and “Cecilia is everywhere” (138).

“Hidden Cities 3”

A sibyl predicted that Marozia’s fate was to be two cities: one pertaining to the rat and the other to the swallow. When Polo visits, Marozia is in the degraded century of the rat, waiting for the swallow era to begin, and some of the inhabitants show evidence of preparing for swallow-like flight. However, even in the swallow era there is decadence and deception, with people who believe they are flowering even if they “can get off the ground flapping their batlike overcoats” (139). However, within one city, there are cracks where a city of the other nature appears. Polo interprets the oracle thusly: Both cities change with time, but “their relationship does not change; the second is the one about to free itself from the first” (140).

“Continuous Cities 5”

A traveler might believe that by passing beneath an archway, they will arrive at the city of Penthesilea. However, it is full of vague spaces that do not fully feel like a city. When a traveler asks for directions to Penthesilea, people give contradictory directions. However, the traveler remains forever on the outskirts. they are then assailed by the question: “outside Penthesilea does an outside exist?” Or is the traveler forever doomed to wander the city’s outskirts? (142).

“Hidden Cities 4”

Theodora was a city assailed by successive plagues. The worst of these was a league of super-rats that were immune to all human traps and poison. They were only defeated by an “extreme massacre” (143). When humankind finally reestablished their supremacy, all fauna were extinguished, the only reminders of them being in the volumes of Buffon and Linnaeus. However, this eventually led to mythological fauna escaping from the library’s basements and seeking to reclaim possession of Theodora. These included sphinxes, griffons, chimeras and harpies and basilisks.

“Hidden Cities 5”

Like many of the doubled cities Polo has visited, Berenice has both just and unjust versions of itself. The just city’s inhabitants are in the shadows of the unjust, having habits “which remain austere and innocent” and cuisine which is “sober but tasty” (145). However, within the just city “a malignant seed is hidden […] the certainty and pride of being in the right” (145). Thus, a new unjust city has the potential to take seed in the just one. While the listener might gauge that just and unjust Bernices arise in succession, in truth, the future Berenices are already evident in the present version, and so ultimately the just city becomes difficult to separate from the unjust one.

“Coda to Part 9”

Khan’s atlas also features maps of utopian mythic lands, such as Utopia itself, New Atlantis, and Icaria. He asks Polo to use his traveling expertise to predict which of the cities will be most like the future. Polo affirms that he could not calculate it from the features of the map, however he could put a new city together from the overheard fragments of dialogue of two passersby. He conjectures that the new city will form organically, from the stuff of life itself, and might even be “rising, scattered, within the confines of your empire” as they speak (147). He says that Khan will only find this perfect city if he hunts for it in fragments.

Khan lives in fear of an “infernal city” that will be a living hell and engulf them all (147). Polo offers two options. The first is to accept the hell and become so integrated in its traffic that it does not appear to be any different. The other way is to look for those who have resisted the forces of the inferno and give them space to influence others.