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.