An Analysis of Octavia and Zora in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities

This essay analyzes Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities,' focusing on the contrasting cities of Octavia and Zora. Octavia, a symbol of trading cities, is examined for its portrayal of over-urbanism and consumerism, highlighting the negative impacts on modern cities. The essay contrasts this with Zora, a city representing memory, emphasizing its significance to travelers and its connection to the author's native Venice. The analysis delves into the themes of urbanism, consumerism, and memory, demonstrating how Calvino uses these cities to critique contemporary societal issues. The essay also reflects on a related group activity involving filmmaking on the city of Octavia, which helped the student gain insightful information about the work. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of Calvino's work in deconstructing traditional travel writing and offering symbolic representations of modern cities' problems and challenges.

Running head: INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” or “Le città invisibili”
(Italian), published by Giulio Einaudi Editore in 1972 is generally
considered to be one of the best works related to the genre of
travel writing (McElroy 2019). However, as per the
Theliteraryreview.org (2019), “Calvino’s fiction isn’t a story; it’s
an ordering and reordering of the emotional and philosophical
reverberations of our civilized world, our human condition”. More
importantly, the concerned work is generally seen to be a mastery of
Calvino’s art to make fables out of the evolution undergone by the
different cities of the world over the year (Ryan 2016). As a matter
of fact, it is seen that he tries to deconstruct Marco Polo’s “The
Travels of Marco Polo” and takes the help of different themes like
memory, urbanism, deterioration and others to show the flight of
more than 55 cities in the realm of Kubla Khan (Subramanian 2019).
The resultant effect of this is that the entire work is a dialogue
between Kubla Khan and Marco Polo wherein it is seen that Polo
offers a visual description of the different cities of Khan’s realm
and although Khan does not believe everything that Polo has to say
yet he offers a keen ear to the same (Case and Gaggiotti 2016).
Octavia, a city mentioned by Marco Polo is a protype of the trading
cities and shows the adverse effect of over-urbanism or consumerism.
This essay will analyse the city of Octavia mentioned in Calvino’s
“Invisible Cities” on the basis of the themes of urbanism and
consumerism and compare it with the city of Zora which is a
symbolical representation of memory.
The work of Calvino rather than merely describing the
different cities of the realm of Kubla Khan that Marco Polo had
visited takes the help of diverse themes or fables to offer an
insight into the changing nature of the contemporary world
(Bajçinovci, Thaçi and Bajçinovci 2016). More importantly, the
author also in a succinct manner tries to convey the idea or the
concepts that the different cities represent to the dwellers as well
as travels. As a matter of fact, Marco Polo is found to be saying
that “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if
the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd,
their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something
else” (Calvino 1997). The resultant effect of this is that different

2INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
themes like memory, desire, consumerism, urbanism and others are
being used by Marco Polo to create a picturesque description of
these cities. In this regard, it needs to be said that almost all
the cities that Marco Polo narrates to Kubla Khan are being
described in the context of his own native city of Venice and this
becomes apparent from the line “Every time I describe a city I am
saying something about Venice” (Calvino 1997). More importantly, the
cultural, social, economic, way of life of the people and others are
being used by Marco Polo as a way to describe the cities and rather
than just being cities become a symbolical representation of the
life of the dwellers of these cities itself and thereby inextricably
related to their past. Thus, from the perspective of the foreign
travellers it is seen that while “Arriving at each new city, the
traveller finds again a past of his that he did not know he had……
lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places” (Calvino 1997).
One of the most important cities which is being described by
Marco Polo during his conversation with Kubla Khan among the 55
different cities he describes is the city of Octavia. In this
regard, it needs to be said that it is not until the 67th page of the
work that Marco Polo gives a description of this city. However, at
the same time it is seen that in contrast to the description of the
cities given in the concerned work, Marco Polo offers a brief
description of the concerned city and that too of one paragraph only
although within this one paragraph itself he creates a vivid image
of the city (McLaughlin 2018). For example, it is seen that he
describes the city as a “spider-web city” and also as one which is
declining and thereby the people have adjusted themselves to this
aspect of the concerned city (Calvino 1997). More importantly, the
mundane or the grotesque nature of the city becomes apparent from
the phrases which is being used by Marco Polo for describing it like
“city is over the void”, “Suspended over the abyss, the life of
Ocatvia's inhabitants is less uncertain than other cities. They know
the net will last only so long” and others (Calvino 1997).
Furthermore, to describe the ruin faced by the city he also takes
the help of different images like “houses made like sacks”,
“terraces like gondolas”, “skins of water” and others (Calvino
1997).

3INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
The description of the city of Octavia given by Marco Polo is
not only important from the perspective of the vivid image which it
creates in the mind of the readers but at the same time on the score
of the important themes which are being used. For example, he has
trying to describe the city under discussion here as a trading city
which is suffering from the adverse effects of over-urbanism and
consumerism (Grundtvig 2017). This becomes apparent from the items
or the products which Marco Polo describes as the trade marks of the
concerned city like “rope ladders”, “gas jets”, “spits”, “baskets on
strings”, “trapezes and rings for children's game” and others
(Calvino 1997). This has important connotations or the relation with
the different modern cities of the world wherein it is seen that the
majority of the modern cities are also relying on the process of
urbanism and over-consumerism (Iovino 2017). Thus, it can be said
that the description of the city of Octavia in a succinct manner
shows the negative aspects of the process of urbanism and
consumerism on which the majority of the modern cities are relying
on and if they do not change this attitude then it is likely that
they would met the same fate that the city of Octavia met in the
work under discussion here.
Zora is another important city which is being described by
Marco Polo in the work under discussion here and it is pertinent to
note that the description given by Marco Polo of this city is in
complete contrast to the one of Octavia. For example, unlike the
city of Octavia which is a symbolical representation of trading
cities, negative effects of too much urbanism, consumerism and
others the city of Zora is a symbolical representation of memory
(Mukhija 2015). As a matter of fact, Marco Polo says that “Zora’s
secret lies in the way your gaze runs over patterns following one
another as in a musical score where not a note can be altered or
displaced” and one has to use their memory to decipher the things
that they are seeing (Calvino 1997). More importantly, while
describing the concerned city he states that it is a “city which
cannot be expunged from the mind” and while stating this he relates
it to the city of Venice that he himself cannot expunge from his
mind despite the fact that over the years he had seen numerous
cities (Calvino 1997). This as a matter of fact is coterminous with

4INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
the different modern travellers who despite travelling the world and
living as global citizens find it very hard to forget their own
native city (Nachtomy 2016). Thus, it can be said that as per the
description of Marco Polo although both of the cities under
discussion here belong to the realm of Kubla Khan yet at the same
time it is seen that they are starkly different from one another and
also the things that they represent.
To conclude, Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” is an
important which seeks to deconstruct the traditional literary genre
of travel writing. More importantly, it is seen that rather than
offering a descriptive account of the different cities of the realm
of Kubla Khan, Marco Polo takes the help of various fables as well
as themes like memory, desire, urbanism, consumerism and others to
offer a vivid account of these cities. In this regard, mention needs
to be made of the cities of Octavia (symbolical representation of
trading cities, over-urbanism and over-consumerism) and Zora
(symbolical representation of memory). More importantly, it is seen
that the descriptions of these cities rather than being merely
fictional are symbolical of the different problems or the plight
that the modern cities are presently facing. In this regard, I would
like to say that the group activity of film making on the city of
Octavia which we undertook helped me in a significant manner to gain
insightful information not only regarding the concerned city but
also about the entire work of Calvino under discussion here itself.
For example, initially we were not very confident regarding the work
nor had any concrete idea regarding the manner in which we would be
proceeding with the activity. To add to this, we also faced various
kinds of communication issues and perspective differences however we
overcame them through the usage of effective communication and also
through the usage of the software of AutoCAD. The effective usage of
these measures not only helped us in understanding the work under
discussion here of Calvino in an effective manner but at the same
time help us in the completion of the group activity as well as this
essay.

5INVISIBLE CITIES ESSAY
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[online] Available at:
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