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A review by aegagrus
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
3.75
Calvino's classic work of speculative fiction is a sojourn in the borderlands between physical and conceptual space. The book serves as a catalogue of ideas, full to bursting with imagined cities. Most of Calvino's conceits are compelling, though not all. Occasionally the through-line feels missing, but most of the time things seem to have been strung together quite elegantly. Interspersed between the fantastical ideas are realistic ones, but these are cast in an equally unfamiliar and strange light -- a trick which is particularly successful at germinating thought. Sometimes Calvino's descriptions employ women's bodies in uncomfortable ways, but the symbolism is still (generally) appreciated.
A reader might find themselves a little underwhelmed when searching for broad takeaways. The metaphor of the constantly iterating chess game captures something of the piece's character. The symbols deployed are ambiguous, and it is difficult to remember every combination of moves. The collection as a whole captures something meaningful, if ephemeral.
The stronger takeaway, for me, is rooted in the frame narrative, a dialogue (or lack thereof) between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Here Calvino's work is at its most cohesive and challenging, posing questions about the difference between speculation and experience, the nature of understanding, and the project of communicating that understanding. The communicators experiment with their give and take, touching on both the easy universality of experience and the absurd impossibility of subjective description. The latter in particular is imbued with a real wistfulness which generally engrosses the reader.
A reader might find themselves a little underwhelmed when searching for broad takeaways. The metaphor of the constantly iterating chess game captures something of the piece's character. The symbols deployed are ambiguous, and it is difficult to remember every combination of moves. The collection as a whole captures something meaningful, if ephemeral.
The stronger takeaway, for me, is rooted in the frame narrative, a dialogue (or lack thereof) between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Here Calvino's work is at its most cohesive and challenging, posing questions about the difference between speculation and experience, the nature of understanding, and the project of communicating that understanding. The communicators experiment with their give and take, touching on both the easy universality of experience and the absurd impossibility of subjective description. The latter in particular is imbued with a real wistfulness which generally engrosses the reader.