False?

 “Falsehood is never in words; it is in things.” (pg. 62)

The fourth section of Invisible Cities talks about perspective. Every city in the section is seen differently depending on the beholder, or the way one looks at it, or the way it is described.

Olivia is the perfect example of how a city can change depending on its description. Marco Polo explains how in the case of this city, you describe the aspects of the city you want others to see, leaving out the obvious downsides. “If I describe to you Olivia, a city rich in products and profits, I can indicate its prosperity only by speaking of filigree palaces with fringed cushions in the seats by the mullioned windows… But from these words you realize at once how Olivia is shrouded in a cloud of soot and grease that sticks to the houses…” (pg.61) Much like any work of literature, Olivia can be described but not fully explained by a single person, because each reader will describe what he wants the next to see or only what he understood, even though the true meaning hidden in the book can be completely different.

“It is the mood of the beholder which gives the city of Zemrude its form” (pg. 66) This city, shows how every single person that reads a book, or lives a specific situation, may see it differently depending on his mood, the things that happened before that event, or the books he read before. The example Calvino gives for this city in order to explain it properly is very simple, yet effective. If you travel the city whistling, tilting you head back, it is inevitable that you see only the high areas of the city, the sunlit buildings and windows. If you walk hunched, with your hands in your pockets, and looking at the floor, you will see the sewers, the dark and less prosperous areas of the city. In reality, this city comes to show how there are two sides to everything, and what is seen depends on the beholder.

“..Aglaura imprisons your words and obliges you to repeat rather than say.” (pg. 68)

The city of Aglaura focuses is a city which is seen the same way by all its inhabitants. They have become so accustomed to its grandeur, that it no longer seems impressive. Furthermore, the inhabitants have stopped noticing the change and growth of their city, they just repeat what the previous inhabitants said about the city, causing any change in the metropolis to go by unnoticed. This phenomenon happens daily in reality. We have grown so used to seeing poor people working at the stop-lights, that it has ceased to affects us like it probably affected the first people to see them. It has become a common occurrence.  What's more, the excerpt on this city which is mentioned above, could also relate to the phenomenon which takes place in our heads every time we read a new good book. The author has stressed that as we near the ending of the book we will become “an emblem among emblems” (pg. 23) This means that we will become a part of the book, and the book will become a part of us. Every work of literature forces us to repeat rather than say. Not literally of course, we are never forced to agree with a book or begin to live by it, yet, if we like it, we invariably do.

As I continue reading the book, I have no way to know what the cities that come next will represent. I can’t even know what they will look like or what they will say. Still, I find myself trying to make predictions, or even trying to imagine what Calvino would like to write next. I have no way of predicting this, and there is no way to get it right, “’And yet I have constructed in my mind a model city from which all possible cities can be deduced…’” (pg. 69)