The Pattern

The book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino contains numerous detailed descriptions of cities with interactions between Kublai Khan and his explorer Marco Polo peppered throughout. In these exchanges Kublai Khan is referred to as the emperor who listens intently to Marco Polo’s experiences and adventures. In these situations their relationship is posed as the one that is simultaneously talking place as we read this book. We become Kublai Khan and Italo Calvino becomes Marco Polo, our job as readers is to be the listeners. 

“Only in Marco Polo’s accounts was Kublai Khan able to discern, through the walls and towers destined to crumble, the tracery of a pattern so subtle it could escape the termites’ gnawing.”(p.6) Here it's understood that Marco Polo’s accounts, in other words Italo Calvino’s book, is unique and has a certain significance that the readers should decipher. The walls and towers mentioned might represent the physical appearance of all the towns Marco Polo speaks about that are bound to disintegrate at some point. However, behind the physicality of all these place there lies a sort of “pattern” that is subtle enough to go by unnoticed.

The readers reach a moment were they wonder, like Kublai Khan, “What is the use, then, of all your [Marco Polo’s] traveling?” (p. 27) Marco Polo answers that more than an actual purpose it’s a process. “Elsewhere is a negative mirror. The traveler recognizes the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have.” It’s a process of exploring the past, recognizing the lost possible futures, and contemplating the current present. This of course sparks curiosity in the audience because Marco Polo’s traveling is reminiscent of the events in their lives, the adventurous and occurrences they have experienced.

Marco Polo’s reasoning is also significant because it hints back to this “pattern” that readers should uncover as they read the description of all the cities. For now, I think the pattern might be how the cities are each distinct with their unique characteristics, yet somehow still interconnected and therefore the same. “Olinda is certainly not the only city that grows in concentric circles.”(p.129) "All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities."(p.7) Naturally, this then begs the question what exactly do these cities represent? If Kublai Khan’s “empire” is all the knowledge acquired through time and cities make up this empire, then maybe the cities are each individual piece of information that is gained and collectively makes up the empire. Therefore, the fact that they each have distinguished characteristics, yet share an even larger amount of similarities and interconnections, it shows how each piece of information making up the cornucopia of knowledge is the same in value and meaning, while still different as a result of the small details. In fact, he even compares one of the cities to the pattern of a rug. He says, "At first sight nothing seems to resemble Eudoxia less than the design of that carpet...But if you pause and examine it carefully, you become convinced that each place in the carpet corresponds to a place in the city and all the things contained in the city are included in the design, arranged according to their true relationship."(p.96) Patterns can be found in the most unlikely of places. Their arrangement can be justified by close inspection, yet most times the resemblance isn't plainly evident. Thats why it's so vital that the readers pay close attention to Marco Polo, so that they will be able to recognize the intricately arranged pattern written on the pages of Invisible Cities.