![]() Disturbingly, it is implied that all cities are but that one city, and you can never leave. Cecilia is a city which has swallowed the world, Trude cannot be left because it is all cities and Penthesilia consists only of outskirts, leaving Marco Polo uncertain as to whether or not he can ever be not in the outskirts of that city. Closed Circle: Several interesting examples.City Planet: An unusual example: Penthesilia's outskirts cannot be left, therefore it envelops the entire planet.Beneath the Earth: Eusapia has a mirror city for the dead underground, and Argia subverts this by having the city being filled with dirt (although it is hinted that there are still inhabitants.).Base on Wheels: Half a base on wheels, in Sophronia's case.The city of Armilla has no walls or ceilings - it consists exclusively of plumbing, and its inhabitants are the nymphs and naiads who live in its pipes.Some say the gods live in the aquifer others say they live in the plumbing, which lifts the water ever upwards i to the sky. The borders of Isaura are defined by the edges of the aquifer from which it drinks through a thousand wells.Oddly enough, it is not an example of The City or Urban Fantasy. While the concept is simple, the description of each unique city serves as a meditation upon culture, language, time and many other topics, and it is up to the reader to find the patterns that they form together. Each city is described by a prose poem, interspersed with dialogues between the two men. The novel is framed as Marco Polo's descriptions of the many fantastic cities he has seen, delivered to Kublai Khan as he expands his empire. Like most of Calvino's works, Invisible Cities is as much a puzzle box as a story: it plays with the concepts of language, imagination and communication. Invisible Cities is a novel by Italian author Italo Calvino, who also wrote If on a winter’s night a traveler.
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