Aglaura:The Eye Of The Beholder

The school year is about to end and reading Aglaura from Cities and Names 1 was quite an experience . It took me back at beginning of the year.The Idea of Utopias and a perfect world.

In Aglaura what is  weird is normal and what is normal is weird. Aglaura is basically a Utopia. Were everything is perfect and everything is normal. This is why it is so hard to explain.  In Aglaura as Marco Polo himself says it “There is little I can tell you about Aglaura”. The reason why is because Aglaura is full of very different things. 

“So if I wished to describe Aglaura to you, sticking to what I personally saw and experienced, I should have to tell you that it is a colourless city, without character, planted there at random. But this would not be true, either: at certain hours, in certain places along the street, you see opening before you the hint of something unmistakable, rare,perhaps magnificent; you would like to say what it is, but every thing previously said of Aglaura imprisons your words and obliges you to repeat rather than say.”This Is Marco Polo trying to describe Aglaura. The reason why, the description of  Aglaura  is so open to many interpretations of what Aglaura might be like, Is because,what a perfect world or normal world might be like to some, will of course be different to what it will be like to others.Marco Polo ends up his description by saying “in the lack of words to fix it, has been lost.” This means that since there is no exact way to describe a perfect world the definition of a perfect world has been lost.

Aglaura reminded me of all we had done in class designing our own Utopias our flags, the discussions . But what it most reminded me of was watching The Twilight Zone episode called The Eye of the Beholder.  Which showed the same idea as  Aglaura were weird is normal and normal is weird. 

When we Mix,When we Mix

As I read about Zobeide in Cities and Desire 5, I couldn't stop comparing it to Euphemia from Trading cities 1. Both of these cities had something in common, something every city has.Acculturation. Both of these cities reflect perfectly what happens when people from different cultures interact with each other. How they are bound to share certain characteristics and differ in  others. Ultimately if they continue to live together they will most probably create a new culture. A culture which contains both good things and bad things.

The mixture of cultures is very present in Zobeide. Which was Founded by  men of various nations , which had an identical dream. “They saw a woman running at night through an unknown city; she was seen from behind, with long hair, and she was naked. They dreamed of pursuing her.  As they twisted and turned, each of them lost her.  After the dream, they set out in search of that city; they never found it, but they found one another; they decided to build a city like the one in the dream.”There dreams  in this case could  represent their culture, they have some differences and some similarities. Ultimately they build a city based on all of their different dreams(cultures) since all of their dreams are somewhat similar but also quite different the city ended up being an ugly and disorganized mess.

Euphemia also shows how different cultures mix. Euphemia was a city were people  came to trade.What made Euphemia different from other trading cities was that people all around the world came to trade.Therefore it was inevitable for cultural diffusion to occur. Because these people traded everything from silk, to stories about war, to religions, to recipes. Therefore when merchants left Euphemia,they had learned so much things they didn't know before. Euphemia reminded me of the summer camp I went to as a kid. Were people from all the world or at least all the country would spend the summer together. By the time the summer was over. I had learned a lot, because I  had interacted with so many other cultures.

Zobeide and Euphemia compare because they both show the positive and the negative effects of acculturation. Zobeide shows how acculturation can create bad things.While on the other hand Euphemia shows how acculturation can create good things.

Acculturation occurs in any city. An easy place to get an example from is the City. New York is one of the biggest cities in the world.It is a place were cultures smash together everyday every place. Describing a New Yorker is a perfect example of acculturation .There favorite foods might be from a Pizza to a Kebab to Noodles.One from Italy the other from Arabia and the other one from Asia. If some one enters a cab in New York he can get from a Egyptian driver to a Cuban driver to an Italian driver to a Chinese driver. In New York you can find some good things and some bad things all as a product of acculturation. 

“....in a single day and night of misfortune the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.”-Plato 360 B.C

“....in a single day and night of misfortune the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.”-Plato 360 B.C

               As I kept on reading Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, I came across another city I really liked,“Isaura”. I particularly liked this city because it reminded me of one of my favorite childhood movies, Atlantis, The Lost Empire . Isaura is a beautiful city that rises over a subterranean lake. The people of Isaura dig vertical tunnels in order to obtain their water. They also have two very different religious beliefs.While some believe that the Gods live in the depths of the lake, others believe that they live in the buckets that transportsthe water through the vertical tunnels of the city. I think that the buckets traveling through Isaura and the last phrase of Marco Polo’s  description: “A city that moves entirely upwards”, represent the dilemma of Isaura between being a city in which, day by day,  its people decide on either  progressing (following the Gods of the Buckets which go up), or staying as they are now (following the Gods in the depths of the lake).

               Atlantis  is a city under sea. “According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules  that conquered many parts of  western Europe andAfrica 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune". (Wikepedia). In my favorite childhood movie Atlantis, The Lost Empire, Milo, the main character, discovers how to get to the lost city of Atlantis. Milo gets a millionaire, called Preston Whitmore, to finance his expedition. He assembles a crew to help him get to the city of Atlantis. Finally, when they reach Atlantis, Milo’s crew betrays him. They discover the city has a precious holy crystal which they plan to steal and  take up to the surface to sell it. However, Milo refuses to let them commit such an atrocity. With the help of the princess of Atlantis, Kida, Milo stops the bandits from stealing the crystal of Atlantis. In the end Milo stays living in Atlantis while the rest of his crew goes to the surface.

               Atlantis compares to Isaura in many ways. First, they are both on the water. Second, their people live isolated and under very special conditions. Last, but not least, Atlantis, Like Isaura, has only two options; staying as they are now, at the bottom of the ocean living isolated, or progressing and making contact with the surface.

So It Starts....

I wonder how much time it took Italo Calvino to write this book. How could he come up with so many cities! So it starts the wonderful journey which Marco Polo invites us on. From the beginning of the book, simply by looking at the table of contents, I knew this was going to be a tough book to read and understand. After I read the first pages and the first descriptions I asked myself “Is the whole book going to actually be like this ? City after city description after description ?” So I skimmed through the pages and noticed it was. I also noticed that Calvino’s description of  each city is filled with symbolism .

  I really liked the description of Isidora from the very first sentence “When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a city.” This quote reminded me of  my family trip, last December to “Golfo De Morrosquillo”. It was an eight hour car ride. We rode through the beautiful mountains, until we reached a tiny village. Of course these villages didn't even compare to Isidora. However, it relates because  after riding a long time through the mountains. I had the desire for one of these villages. Calvino describes a Isidora as a city were “perfect telescopes and violins are made”.This made me think of Isidora as a city where old men come to remember their past and look at the future. Violins are a classical instrument that might be associated with the past. A telescope can easily be associated with looking at the future since you can see what is coming.

 However, my favorite part of Calvino’s description was “Isidora”; the city of his dreams, but with one difference. The dreamed-of city identified him as a young man; “he arrived at Isidora in his old age. In the central square there is a wall where old men sit and watch the youngsters go by; he sits in a row by the wall with them. Desires are already memories”.This description made me think of Isidora as an even more romantic and beautiful city, where everybody must feel a certain nostalgia. A city where old men come to remember their past and look at the future.

The Survival Machines.

                                   

Throughout chapter ten, I felt as if as though I was sitting in Dr.G’s Biology class.Your learn a lot, but then again you don understand a lot. I had to read paragraphs to or three times to process what Dawkins was talking about.

However, something I undisputedly learned was genes and DNA determine almost every single aspect of our lives. The other day in Biology class we were looking at genetic diseases such as Down Syndrome, Canavan disease and many others. People with these genetic diseases have numerous difficulties. As this chapter and these diseases made me realize, the difference between good and bad genes can mean the difference between a good and a bad life. I am not saying people with genetic diseases have a bad life, I am saying they have a harder life. I realize how much we owe to our genes and DNA .

I also want to talk about another thing. Dawkins defines living things as  “survival machines” through out the last chapter. These themes of survival machines, DNA and genes made me think about the movie Time. In Time each character of the movie is born and is given exactly 26 years of life. After they are 26 they die. So in the movie people work for Time. In other words time is there currency if they work all day they get 45 minutes and if they buy a coffee its worth two minutes. Each person has a personal clock that when they are born has exactly 26 years and it starts counting down when this clock reaches zero they die. People that are born poor have to work and live on a daily basis trying to figure out how not to die within the next two days “survival machines.” However people that are born rich, as their parents have about a million years in time, they don't have to worry because they can live as long as they want.

The Movie relates a lot to Chapter three of The Selfish Gene because it consists of survival machines. It relates even more, in the sense that your life time and quality, can be determined by whether you are born rich or poor. This can relate to the genes and the DNA. If you are born with good genes and DNA, you are destined to live a long and good life. On the other hand if you are born with bad genes and DNA, your life is destined to be harder and shorter.

Meet Dave

The Human structure is extremely complex. Reading chapter two made me realize exactly how complex it was. There was a certain point in chapter three were I really wasn't getting anything of what I was reading. It was really complex. However, as always Dawkins shows the complex as something simple. Dawkins used the following analogy to explain how the human being is composed by certain genes that act together each one with specific functions so that the body can function properly as a whole. “One oarsman on his own cannot win the Oxford Cambridge boat race. He needs eight colleagues. Each one is a specialist who always sits in a particular part of the boat - bow or stroke or cox etc. Rowing the boat is cooperative venture,but some men are nevertheless better than others.” After this analogy, I could finally understand what I had struggled to understand through the last three pages. I understood that the body can assemble a kind of dream team of genes to function the best he can. This again made me think of how the human is a “survival machine” as Dawkins calls it and how it will do its best he can to survive.

         Dawkins analogy reminded me of the movie Meet Dave. The movie is about some outer space aliens, which come to Earth to take over the whole water supply of planet. The aliens are all about the size of a finger, so in order for them to come to earth they assemble a human body that is their “ship.” They also assemble a dream crew to take command of the ship. Their objective is to go to Earth and try to take over the water supply of the world. Each crew member is given a specific number and a specific function just like in Dawkins analogy about the rowing boat. This is a perfect team that makes the human body function perfectly. There are several members working in the legs to make the ship move properly, several others working in the hands and fingers, and, finally, the captain of the ship is in the brain. This compares perfectly to Dawkins’ analogy.

Cultural Transmission

All through out his book I have learned so much about evolution. I have been learning about Darwin and about how the most stable and the strongest species evolved. However I had never considered thinking about evolution in any other subject apart from biology. Now that I have read chapter twelve I have discovered that absolutely  everything evolves. A great example was the experiment conducted by P.F Jenkins in New Zealand. It’s is clear how the different types of songs were born from trying to imitate that last song. It was even more to me when Dawkins gave the example “George Chaucer couldn't hold a conversation with a modern English men.” This chapter made me realize that truly as all living things all of the human inventions evolve.

I would like to start out talking about fashion. Fashion is a clear example of how human inventions evolve. Before, clothing was very different from the way it is today. Women were supposed to wear long dresses, dark dresses, and their hair had to be all tied up. Nowadays you can see plenty of women in bright orange tee shirts with white mini skirts. Another example that can be seen evidently is with the brand logos. Twenty years ago if you bought a Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt it would have a tiny bitty horse in the upper left side, which marks the difference between a normal Polo shirt and a Ralph Lauren shirt. Today that tiny bitty horse has evolved into a massive horse that now covers half of your shirt so that everybody can see that you are wearing is in deed Ralph Lauren. The same has happened with tennis rackets, purses, soccer balls, computers, chocolates, cellphones and lots of other products that used to have no logos and nowadays have giant logos so that people can differentiate them from not just any product.

Another clear case of evolution is language. Or, for this matter, specifically nicknames. I have various friends whose nicknames have evolved so much that it’s impressing. For example I have a friend whose nickname is Cheviosky. His nickname evolved from his name Sebastian, who then went to Sebas, who then went to Chevas who then went to Chevis, who then went to the now present Cheviosky. It has been the same with many other friends whose nicknames have evolved so much that we have no idea why we call them that way.

Cellphones, for example, evolve every now and then. They go from big to little to very little. It is the same with Ipods computers and other technological devices Food portions have also evolved a lot. 40 years ago McDonalds hamburgers were normally 1/4 of a pound and some had cheese some didn't. Today, hamburgers are 1/2 of a pound and come with lettuce, cheese, tomato, bacon, onions, peppers and about 5 to 6 different sauces. This is a clear example of how everyday common things evolve.