Kurgu
Invisible Cities
CevvelaKurgu
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino · Yapı Kredi Yayınları · 1972
7
Cevvela Score
8.0 (4.429 oy)
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Summary
Fascinating descriptions of cities—more mental and imaginary than physical—as recounted by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan. A poetic, postmodern narrative that explains how cities are not actually made of stones and buildings, but of desires, memories, fears, and symbols.
Quotes from Cevvela
“What makes a city a city is not its walls but the memories echoing in the spaces between them.”
“A journey is really an excavation we make into ourselves.”
“Desires are the invisible foundations of cities.”
“What you see is only as much as you know how to look.”
“Without stories to give it meaning, an empire is only a desert.”
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Reader Score: 8.0 / 10(4.429 votes)
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Calvino builds cities out of words. An entrepreneur is also a Marco Polo; he describes to others a structure that does not yet exist—that “city” he sees only in his own mind. The author says that structures are built not of bricks, but of meaning. He explains that the raw material asks no questions; it is subject to the imagination of the one who shapes it. You realize that the businesses or goals you’ve built are merely numbers, and that unless you breathe a “soul” into them, that city will remain lifeless. A vision is the art of creating a language through which even those who don’t believe in it can see that city.