Invisible Cities

Part 7 Introduction

Khan posits that Polo has not visited all the lands he has described or even moved from the garden where they are sitting. Polo replies that his actions and visions take place in a mental space that can equally apply to the peaceful garden and the bustling world he describes. He can be in both at once. Khan admits that he too is a contemplative in a garden, far from his idea of a great conqueror in battle. Polo says that they cannot know whether the bustling world or the peaceful garden is their inside or outside reality.

“Cities and Eyes 5”

The city of Moriana has “a face and an obverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side, which can neither be separated nor look at each other” (95). One face is the splendid show, and the other is its refuse and the gritty materials of its composition.

“Cities and Names 4”

Clarice has been destroyed and reconstructed several times, “always keeping the first Clarice as an unparalleled model of every splendor, compared to which the city’s present state can only cause more sighs at every fading of the stars” (96). With each decline, the reconstruction uses the materials of the old city to build the fabric of a new one, to prevent the loss of the original city.