Names and Desire

All of the cities in Invisible Cities bear feminine names. For the traveler Marco Polo, who misses his homeland and the comforts that come with it, each city is female and represents the object of desire. The names are mostly exotic and even hint at the qualities of the city in some way. So, for example, the spider web city is Octavia. I feel its inhabitants constantly live in unease and tension but believe the city and “net” is protecting them. Invisible Cities is generally a dialogue between two men, and so the theme of desire in the novel is consistently a very male one in which woman are chased. This idea is explored quite literally in Cities and Desire 5, Zobeide. Zobeide is the white city under the moon that draws in the dreaming men. After building the city in hopes of reeling the woman from their dream in, they soon realize the city itself has trapped them. Calvino suggests that uncontrolled desire has resulted in “this ugly city, this trap.” Though the cities Marco Polo describes may or not exist, or the stories he tells may be multiple descriptions of the same place, it’s not the point. Marco Polo demonstrates that cities or places in general exist primarily in our imaginations and perceptions. Zobeide and Octavia portray desire through the longing yet trapped feeling that Marco Polo gives them.