Journeys to Relive Past or Recover Future?

In Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Marco Polo describes or imagines describing to Kublai Khan his journeys towards rare unimaginable cities where blind men walk with cheetahs on a leash, where nymphs possess the pipes, and where inhabitants praise postcards that remain unchanged. Their way of communication was “the more one was lost in unfamiliar quarters of distant cities, the more one understood the other cities he had crossed to arrive their…” (28). With this Calvino’s goal is to demonstrate how deeply Kublai Khan wanted to enter Marco Polo’s train of thought, leaving him to the streets he crossed, the creaking of wheels and carrousels he rode, the galleries and mullioned windows he viewed, all to take a course of their own. But how can this be possible? Did it not matter whether questions or details were laid out loud or kept in mere silence? How can one imagine interrupting or imagine answering each other’s questions? Apparently it is a technique Calvino chose in order to explain the complex relationship between both characters. After all, in order to absorb and cherish a perfect and detailed description of any object, you need more than just words, you need images. Images Kublai Khan would find only if he entered Marco’s mind to follow his answers and objections through his memories.

His characters have a unique relationship; anyhow, he takes advantage of the conversations between both to establish a message. For example, Marco Polo believes that his past has changed gradually as he advanced on his journeys. In other words, “the travelers past changes according to the route he has followed: not the immediate past” (28). To him, the cities are not only an empty structure, but rather they represent a past he did not know he had. Nostalgia seems to overwhelm the character knowing that he could be the man sitting at the plaza’s corner if he had only stopped a long time ago in that man’s place. So Khan’s question becomes: were those journeys to relive your past or recover your future? This teaches a vital lesson to all of us about the past we believe is unchanged and closed behind our backs. No key of return. In our journey through life we regret words, actions, and decisions, and as each day passes we are most certain that the past is the past, but according to Calvino it is not. Just as arriving to each city Marco discovers a new past, an event in our future lives may change the way our past is written out, whether it be finding love, to reunite or loose friends and family, or tragedy. So we need to set out on a quest and fix every mistake that haunts us, no regrets included, and relive our past differently.