Creative Writing assignment 1

City Name --- Quote --- Theme

Diomira “Streets paved with lead” Warm Remembrance
Isidora “Where perfect telescopes and violins are made” Regret
Dorothea “Women had fine teeth and looked you straight in the eye” Confidence
Zaira “Lines of a hand” Hidden History
Anastasia “the Treacherous city” Lust
Tamara “Your gaze scans the streets as if they were written pages” Deception
Zora “Secret lies in the way your gaze runs over patterns” Simplicity
Despina “Border city between two deserts” Contrast
Zirma “Distinct Memories” Deception
Isaura “city of a thousand wells” Survival
Maurilia “Old post cards” Politically Correct
Fedora “Grey Stone Metropolis” Regret
Zoe “indivisible existence” ambiguity
Zenobia “houses are of bamboo and zinc” controlled growth
Euphemia “City where memory is traded” Collective
Zobeide “Trap” obsession
Hypatia “no language without deceit” Contrast
Armilla “aquatic realm” Hidden Beauty
Chloe “people who move through the streets are all strangers” Imagination
Valdrada “Every face and gesture is answered” Fear
Olivia “Shrouded in a cloud of soot and grease” Deception
Sophronia “One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary” Contrast
Eutropia “Life is renewed” Denial
Zemrude “Mood of the beholder” Life’s Journey
Aglaura “Lost” Mind’s Deception
Octavia “Spider Web City” Uncertainty
Ersilia “ruins of abandoned cities” Human connection
Baucis “Having already everything they need” Disconnected
Leandra “they always criticize” connected separation
Melania “From act to act the dialogue changes” constant dialogue
Esmerelda “Secret and adventurous lives” Intrigue
Phyllis “Scanning a blank page” Lost Passion
Pyrrha “Enclosed like a goblet” Shifting perceptions
Adelma “the beyond is not happy” haunting past
Eudoxia “Screams in the darkness” abyss
Moriana “alabaster Gates” contrast
Clarice “emptied by plagues” Rebirth
Eusapia “Eusapia of the dead” Afterlife
Beersheba “Celestial City” Materialism
Leonia “City is renewed each day” Fear
Irene “Wind brings music of bass drums and trumpets” Mystery
Argia “It is dark” unsought mystery
Thekla “The sky is filled with stars. There is the blueprint.” Fear of Unknown
Trude “The world is covered by a sole trude.” Similarity
Olinda “All of the Olindas that blossomed one from the other” Change
Laudinia “The Cemetary” History
Perinthia “Intersecting lines of the decamanus and the cardo” Order
Procopia “They seem polite” Insanity
Raissa “Life is not happy” Perception
Andria “Every street follows a planets orbit” Symbiotic
Cecilia “Illustrious” Abyss
Marozia “The rats and the swallows” Contrast
Penthesilea “A soupy city diluted in the plain” Encompassing
Theodora “Rats” Control
Berenice “Unjust City” Corruption

Invisible cities was narrated by Marco Polo as he tells his tales to Kublai Khan. Calvino most likely chose Marco Polo as his narrator because of his historical significance to the world. Marco Polo is a significant story in the mind’s of historically inclined people today, and who better to narrate a story about travel and history than a historical icon. It also helps that Marco Polo is Venetian. Calvino changes the way that Marco Polo presents his stories to Kublai from first person to third person. In stories that are meant to leave the reader with a negative feeling (p. 109), Calvino detatches Polo from the story. The story seems to become empty without Marco Polo’s presence. In stories that are meant to leave the reader happy (p. 47), Calvino places Marco into the story so that he can give credence with his first hand account. This is a clever trick by Calvino to alter the perceptions of reader without the reader directly realizing it.