Denouement

It has come to an end. Though it opened up many doors to questions. Finishing Invisible Cities I learned what Calvino really meant to write. Concentrating more on Marco Polo's and Kublai Khan's dialogue, Calvino tried to explain to us the readers how each city is represented by his memories as we try to figure the meanings behind it. We find out that all the cities are made up of Marco Polo's hometown of Venice,

which represents his old life. Each time Khan asks about the cities and its importance, Polo shows how each representation depends on each person. Throughout the book though, Calvino shows what todays society revolves around in Cities and Memories and Cities and Desires. We can see the evidence of religion, consumerism, jealousy and conflicts among the citizens. However, I do not understand the relevance this has with Calvino's interpretation on life. Calvino's use of chess represents the way life takes a turn. There are choices that will influence the decisions you take at the end either winning or loosing.

What really impacted me was the ending. "The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."(165). Calvino describes that the inferno is our everyday lives. After looking at Khan's atlas we look for every possible city there is in our imagination but the final place is where we were all along, in Dante's Inferno. We just need to use our imagination to find the perfect city even though it will never happen.

Cities and Thrones

Watching the season finale of Game of Thrones gave me an idea to compare one of Westeros' cities with one of Calvino's in Invisible Cities. Both Game of Thrones and Invisible Cities have many places to choose from each having its own unique characteristics. I will be comparing Qarth, the gateway of commerce and culture between the east and west, and the north and south of Westeros with Despina, a city in which merchants by land and sea come to trade. Though they might be physically alike, the meaning behind the cities might be a lot different.

Qarth is in the centre of Westeros, granting trade to all the territories surrounded by desert and sea. It's very well known for its wealth and the powerful guilds that attempt to play a role in the governance of the city. It is significant to the story of Game of Thrones as it is the location where Daenerys is kept with her dragons and then the ruler of the city. When Daenerys arrived with her people, the city resembled hope of her achievement in returning to the iron throne. Later it was revealed that the warlocks of the city used her to gain power from her dragons. Deception. At the end when she finally surpassed all obstacles, the city represented power as she had complete control of it.

Despina is also a merchant city that is surrounded by both desert and sea. Its people come by camel and by ships to visit the city of Despina and its women. This city is under the Cities and Desires section describing the desires that lay in Despina. Though, the desires that lay in despina, as mentioned in another blog post, are visiting it by land, when coming by sea, and vise versa. It shows us the jealousy that the city evokes to the visitor.

Both cities are physically same and have desires that attract the visitor. The salvation of Daenerys that Qarth brought to her and her people. The desire of visiting and arriving by land and by sea attracts the visitors coming to Despina. These desires change over time and finally are what make these two cities what they are.

Spectrum

Taking a break from all those wonderful cities that Marco Polo has described since now I wanted to continue onto Calvino's main story, MArco Polo and Kublai Khan. As I mentioned in my first blog of Invisible Cities has metaliterature in it. This is confusing me right now because I'm not getting what the plot of the story is. Though, I can see how Calvino's style of writing is represented by Marco Polo's way of describing his journeys through cities to Kublai Khan.

By including the dialogues between Marco and Kublai, Calvino is given the chance to intervene as Marco and subliminally show his style of writing. “Kublai Khan had noticed that Marco Polo's cities resembled one another” (Page 28). Showing that Khan notices this, he infers that the reader will also notice the resemblance between a city with another as in metaliterature, Khan is the reader, just like us.

Have you ever had those moments where your explaining something and you are lost for words? Well this happens to Calvino, represented with Marco Polo, when he would much rather show than tell. "But you would have said that communication between them was less happy than in the past: to be sure, words were more useful than objects and gestures in listing the most important things of every province and city... and yet when Polo began to talk about how his life must be in those places, day after day, evening after evening, words failed him, and little by little, he went back to relying on gestures, grimaces , glances." (Page 39). We can see that in some parts when describing the cities he shows us how it is rather than straight up telling us. Ironically, he uses words in order to show us, obviously its the only way. 

It is interesting to see how both these characters behaviors reflect upon Calvino's writing. Put some personality in there and it'll just make it more interesting.  

"And the fever getting higher"

I have come to notice that there are five cities that are either in memory, desire, have signs etc.... Now I'm concentrating on Cities and Desires. Again we are introduced to five new cities: Dorothea, Anastasia, Despina, Fedora and Zobeide. These cities are filled with desires that are not sufficient in quenching the visitors thirst for more.

"Before then I had only the desert and the caravan routes. In the years that followed, my eyes returned to contemplate the desert expanses and the caravan routes; but now I know this path is the only one of the many that opened before me on that morning in Dorothea" (Cities and Desires 1). With its magnificent quarters and women in Dorothea, it is every man's desire to be there. Though staying there to long for visitors will want them to go back having their desires fulfilled.
The desire to own and buy everything is found in Anastasia. Desires surrounds finally drags oneself into manipulation becoming the slave of consumerism.
"The city displays one face to the traveler arriving overland and a different one to him who arrives by sea."( City and desire 3). Despina shows each visitor with what he wants to see. Though, the visitor coming by sea has already been quenched by its desire and is repeatedly experiencing the same journey and willing to go by land and vise versa with the land visitor.
Fedora, the city in which its citizens go to museums in search of what could have been their city. Desires not becoming real lead them to fantasize.
"After the dream they set out in search of that city; they never found it, but they found another; they decided to build a city like the one in the dream." (Cities and Desires 5). Zobeide, the city that was built to be something else. The desire to pursue a dream meant to build something fraud.

Each desire in the city brought unhappiness to its people as desire started to grow and grow never being fulfilled.

Città Invisibili

We find ourselves back to the beginning. Allegory has found its way to ask us to analyze it once more. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is filled with allegories, literal and figurative meanings that are just asking to be found and cracked open. This time they brought a friend along, metaliterature. "Metaliterature: writings about writing; any written discussinganother text."(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metaliterature)

"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young venetian with greater attention and curiosity that he shows any other messenger or explorer of his."(page 5).
Reading the first page was already a work finding what each character meant in the three literary figures. As a class we found out that Marco Polo represents knowledge and power, Kublai Khan represents Power of the east, both a figurative level. Now, in a metaliterature level Marco Polo is the writer (speaker) and Kublai Khan is the reader (listener). But we missed something, the empire in which both our protagonists live in represents reality in the figurative level an oneself in metaliterature.

So I began with five Cities and Memories, Zaira, Zora, Maurilia, Diomira and Isidora. All cities encrypted into memories with slight effects onto the visitor. Diomira, the city in which leaves the visitor with the memory a better experience from the last visit and envy to those who have already seen such beauty.
Isidora, a city made up of ones dreams of youth that are finally made true when old. Its spial staircase representing life and aging indicate how the old men of the city only live in a memory. "Desires are already memories." (Cities and Memory 2).
Zaira, its descriptions only contains its past. The past carved likes lines on ones hands indicate it is there for a lifetime remembering what it is made of.
Zora, the city in which is full of knowledge but once it is remembered it disappears as it has not present. "But in vain I set out to visit the city: forced to be more easily remembered, Zora has languished, disintegrated, disappeared. The earth has forgotten her." (Cities and Memories 4).
Maurilia, the final memory city is forgotten by what it was before with the only memory contained in postcards. Showing only the beauty of Maurilia on the postcards, the past and the reality are forgotten.  
All five cities have one thing in common, and that is that in all of them memories prevent people from enjoying life.

Genes, Memes, Survival Machines

I didn't quite get which kind of meme Dawkins was talking about so I'll just leave this here.

Anyway, in chapter eleven Dawkins comes back with another concept of replication, this time not physical but cultural, memes. He doesn't emphasize on how dolphins or ants have tea time or how eagles play more and more video games as the years go by but he focuses on us humans.

He starts by stating we humans have many memes that have changed through time but one specific that continues to this day after many years is the famous, Does God Exist? “God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or ineffective power, in the environment provided by human culture.” (page 193) This is a controversial matter that has been disputed for many years leading to wars and changes in world history. Though, how can people believe in something that has barely any evidence to support its existence? Faith, as Dawkins describes, is a meme for blind faith that can replicate it self. People can go on believing and spreading faith for as long as they want without any backing up.

Though the our physical characteristics have a limited amount of time until they don't show up anymore through passing generations, memes have a longer life spam than genes. This means that ideas, from genes' survival machines, surpasses what was ideally genes mission to fulfill its needs. 

Symbiosis

Completing the tenth chapter of The Selfish Gene, I feel as if I could ace the Biology exam at any moment. What Dawkins has taught me fascinates me. Especially in this chapter where he describes how fungi co-exist with termites for each others' benefits, which is called symbiosis. Sure, I already knew types of symbiosis as oxpeckers (birds), eat ticks off of zebras to feed themselves and help the zebras get free of parasites. Although, I had never heard of plants and insects helping each other out for their own benefits for survival. That really impressed me. 

Putting this chapter in practice, I can see how this may benefit humans if they use reciprocal altruism. Doing a favor for another can be useful when you need it, though you can't be so sure if you'll fall into a scheming trap of a cheater and you end up as a sucker. When people ask me for favors, I nervously ask what they need hoping it won't be a huge one. I find myself to be somewhere in between a Grudger and a Sucker. looks like my genes are not selfish enough to be a Cheat. 

Vocabulary used: 

Reciprocal altruism (P. 166): Doing a favor to another, expecting to later benefit from this.

Symbiosis (P. 181): Also known as mutualism, this is the “relationship of mutual benefit between members of different species.”

Sucker (P. 184): An animal that helps another even if the other won’t help in return, “indiscriminate altruists.”

Cheat (P. 184): “Gain benefits without paying the costs.”

Grudger (P. 185): Only help those who help them in return.

Blue Eyes for You, Blonde Hair for Me

DNA: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Deoxyribonucleic acid. Its billions year mission: To create strange new beings, to make out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

DNA is the what holds all of the genetic material that every living thing needs in order for its species to continue roaming the Earth. Though, we still haven't cracked open all of its mysteries in order to understand the fundamentals of its core. As genes inside the DNA control everything physical and the way a species evolves, it does not mainly affect the characteristics of it, like humans. I may have gotten my dad's eye color and my mom's hair color but I didn't necessarily inherit my parents's personality or skill. "No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch."(page 23)

I remember when once in class we discussed about what we inherit from our parents genes. Many said that both physical and characteristics were inherited. I on the other hand, opposed this theory saying only physical inheritance was affected when genes are passed on. Personality, skills and characteristics are all acquired by one's experience. I doubt that being funny, knowing how to dance and kiss well were around and evolved about one million years ago when the first modern humans were evolving. It couldn't of evolved after homo sapiens were around as human evolution takes a tremendous amount of time. Even though there is still a lot of things to discover and learn of DNA, Dawkins did his best to describe what is known from chromosomes. Cells being rooms of a building and nuclei bookshelves containing architect's plans of the building, it's as if though everything is being built to create their own survival machine, a physical, emotionless, dull machine.

Are Genes that Selfish?

It's been a while since I've read a good book. Suspense, mystery, action, comedy these genres fill my shelves. School textbooks are on my desk. Now with Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, it has me placing it somewhere in between. Now I'm eager to see who cracks open the famous Religion vs. Science debate in class. Though, from what was taught for almost a year now, I've learned more in just a few minutes of reading.

Richard Dawkins describes exceptionally well and interesting about the infamous subject of genes which many high-schoolers seem to avoid. "Survival of the fittest" just makes it the more exciting, seeing you can relate it to those movies or games where it's just killing and moving on to learning that penguins push their families and friends off cliffs for their own safety.

Stopping at chapter 2: The Replicator, it had many of my classmates questioning the author's, and Darwin's, reasoning over how could a mistake create perfection. "But now we must mention an important property of any copying process: it is not perfect."(page 16) There was bound to be a mistakes. If the Replicator was out there making millions of copies of itself, you wouldn't expect it to be 100% correct all the time. Not even the bible can handle writing the exact same thing hundreds of times without making mistranslations. "I suppose the scholars of the septuagint could at least be said to have started something big when they mistranslated the Hebrew word for 'young woman' into the Greek word for 'virgin', coming up with the prophecy: 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son...'"
Something can't become better without learning, or in this case adapting, from its own mistakes. Basically mistakes are what give evolution a reason: create a easier and safer life for the next generation. This is all part of Darwin's natural selection.
Therefore, genes are perfecting themselves for a better survival machine, us.

Crossing Pasts

After finishing Voltaire's Candide, I couldn't help but notice that there are examples that can be related to Elie Wiesel’s Night. From the plot to the characters, there is something familiar between both novels.

The characters of both novels can be compared for their personality and their role in the book. Starting with Moshe the Beadle in Night, he in the novel started out as Elie’s mentor and philosopher, teaching him all about Judaism. His personality shows great caring for Elie and for his fellow friends of the village. Moshe the Beadle can be compared to Pangloss, Candide’s tutor, who lectured him on the ‘best of al possible worlds.’ His personality being a bit more satirical due to Voltaire’s ways shows his interest in cause and effect. Both of them have had a great influence on the main character of both novels from teaching them theories and stories to giving them advise on how to survive in the future. I could add that both of them have returned from the “dead.” Moshe the Beadle returning to the village as the only survivor of a camp and Pangloss returning after being “hanged.”

Candide and Elie share their same goals, saving their loved ones from disaster. In Night, Elie is committed to saving his family from the concentration camp in any way possible. He fights starvation, torture and desperation as he survives through the horrible experiences of the Holocaust. Candide has had nothing but bad luck. As Elie, his only priority is to marry Lady Cunégonde and escape the horrible events that are occurring in Europe. He is tortured, starved and tricked throughout his journey. At the end, their long and hard work to complete their goal and survive is unfulfilled. Despite surviving, Elie did not manage to save his family and Candide was unsatisfied with Lady Cunégonde. A bitter taste was left after going so far.

As of the plot, the constant move of the characters changed perspective and feeling to the reader. Elie’s move between camps is parallel to Candide’s voyages from continent to continent, each destination being somewhat different for the character and the reader.

Although both novels are different from each other, one being a memoir and another a satirical novel, their similarities can show that reality may not always be a happy ending. 

Tending Voltaire's Garden

Finishing Candide, I was left confused. Why would Voltaire bring back to life both Pangloss and the Baron? Also, the way he ended the novel Final chapter "Conclusion" seemed that he wanted to rush things through and get it over with. My expectations were that Candide would finally find what he was looking for without any problems but it seemed that from the beginning, the story was nothing but a misfortune.

Although the highly noticeable rushing of Voltaire to end the novel, he ends it with a simple sentence, that again must be analyzed to comprehend its very core meaning.

"'That's true enough,' said Candide; 'but we must go and work in the garden.'" (pg. 144)

Going a bit back we can see Pangloss explains what Candide means in garden. “’I also know,’ said Candide, ‘that we must go and work in the garden.’

'You are quite right,’ said Pangloss. ‘When man was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was put there “to dress it and to keep it”, to work, in fact; which proves that man was not born to an easy life.’” (pg 143)

I find it interesting that pangloss, after having a much distant theory of life with everything is for the best and everything is made for an apparent reason, he suddenly believes in the Bible's theory of life. Another thing that makes me question what was going on in Voltaire's head as he wrote these final pages. 

Though my interpretation of the last sentence of Candide is that each garden is different to every person. Some work hard on it and some don't. Some have more in it and others less. Thus the garden is someone's life. Candide states that everything that has happened before may had an impact on the present but what lies on the future, lies on what one wants to gain from it. Of course, Voltaire's garden is figuratively and is far away from being the same as the garden in the Bible. 

Finally, this book was interesting to read. Never have I read satirical books, essays or poems in my life and was both confusing, irritating and funny when it came to understanding but the only words I am left are: Why Voltaire, why?  

Utopia in a Dystopia?

Candide's and Cacambo's journey has made a turn of the best. After all the torturous path they had taken from Paraguay, escaping the barbaric Oreillons they had found hope. “They had a rough idea which direction to take, but they found formidable obstacles everywhere in the shape of mountains, rivers, precipices, brigands, and savages.” (pg. 73).

ad found themselves in Eldorado which had blown theirs minds on the way the people lived and prospered. “’What Country can this be?’ said one to the other. ‘It must be unknown to the rest of the world, because everything is so different from what we are used to. It is probably the country where all goes well: for there must obviously be some such place. And whatever professor Pangloss might say, I often noticed that all went badly in all Westphalia.’” (pg. 77). They both had wandered into this utopia without recognizing it. Somehow their luck had just changed. As they explore this unknown territory they are surprised to learn of how peaceful it is with no disputes what-so-ever.

Their reactions must be represented as those from the early colonization time period. They are baffled as they see ordinary children playing with gold and jewels and how they are interpreted as their useless rocks. Something so regular for some can be such a treasure to others. Just like the spaniards with the Incas' gold.

What makes this a utopia is not the gold and jewels that is surrounding the whole city but the culture. I can remember in one of my first english class of the semester, I had to create a utopia. In my utopia I wrote that it must include rights for everyone, equality, freedom of speech and no disputes between people. Eldorado basically described a utopia that included most of the ideas I had for mine. It is a utopia inside a dystopia. It is funny how the it has not yet fallen into the misfortune of corruption as the rest of the world has.

I am eager to know what will happen to both our protagonists while they stay in "paradise".

Discovering the Unknown

Candide and Cacambo, after escaping from the Jesuit Paraguay, entered Oreillons territory in which was a completely strange and new place for both of them. They barley survived the barbaric Oreillons trying to, by the looks of it, eat them as a punishment for murdering their lovers, monkeys, and for believing that they were Jesuits. "They were encompassed by fifty naked Oreillons, armed with bows and arrows, with clubs and flint hatchets. Some were making a large cauldron boil, others were preparing spits, and all cried: "A Jesuit! a Jesuit! we shall be revenged, we shall have excellent cheer, let us eat the Jesuit, let us eat him up!"" (pg. 70) Showing the Oreillons that they weren’t Jesuits and that they had killed the Colonel saved them. They were set free.

It is interesting how Voltaire describes the New World as being savage and barbaric. It’s a wilderness filled with uncivilized indigenous tribes trying to eat Jesuits. The very first stories about the New World were some years after Christopher Columbus discovered it in 1492. These stories contained experiences of people when they were exploring for gold. Some were against the indigenous tribes, exaggerating the things that they did and how their culture was. Some, mainly missionaries, wrote stories that explained and inspired their diverse culture. The exaggeration of these stories triggered the thought of the New World, by the Europeans, to be a dangerous and uncivilized place. I have no information of Voltaire ever visiting America and experiencing what he describes in Candide. He might have passed on the stories he heard or read of the New World and incorporated them into the novel.

From suffering near death experiences, Candide and Cacambo move on to find help and return to Lady Cunégonde.  Will they experience any more savage tribes? Will they get lost in the rainforest? From what Candide has experienced and from what Voltaire has given the audience, these are possibilities of what Candide’s destiny holds. 

Miracles? Bloody Hands.

Isn't it funny when you meet a relative or a friend in another place that you had no idea of meeting them there? Well Candide just found one in his adventures on the other side of the planet. After all his misfortunes he had finally found a miracle. Or was it?

After all the traveling and enemies Candide experienced, the audience should of guessed that only bad luck revolved around him in the novel. "'Can this really be you?' said the Colonel.

'This is beyond the bounds of possibility!' said Candide. They both fell back in amazement, and then embraced each other and burst into tears."

The way Voltaire describes how both Candide and The Colonel, his brother-in-law, meet each other after so escaping death and torture gives the audience the thought that things have changed direction of luck for the main character. But this was deceiving. After a couple of seconds, Candide explains his experiences and how he wants Lady Cunégonde, the Colonels sister, as a wife. This acted like a trigger to a bomb. Suddenly like a blink of an eye, their mood changes. The Colonel was not happy with Candide's metion of marrying Lady Cunegonde. "We shall see about that, you rascal ,' said the Jesuit Baron von Thunder-ten-tronckh; and with those words he struck him across the face with the flat of his swords."(pg. 67) With instinct, Candide kills the Colonel because he refused to give Lady Cunegénde's hand for marriage. Now why would he instantly kill someone that could of saved his destiny.

Just as in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Candide can't believe he has killed three men for the love of Lady Cunégonde and senses his "bloody hands" will never be clean again. Will Candide do anything more for his love's sake? Will there be a twist to the story from now on? All this I hope to answer when I continue Voltaire's Candide. 

Enjoy Your Life While You Can

People who complain about their lives are constantly around me. Some complain because of the amount of homework they receive, other just because their soccer club weren't given a foul. Of course these complains change over time and even disappear, however, Voltaire introduces not one, not two, but three people that have experienced misfortunes as we progress through their lives. 

As each character explains their unfortunate events, from Candide to Lady Cunégonde and finally the old woman, they can't possibly think of a person who has endured worst than they have. "...'unless you have been ravished by two Bulgars, had two stabs in your belly, and two of your country houses demolished; unless you have had two mothers and two fathers butchered before your eyes, and beheld two of your lovers flogged at an auto-da-fé, I don't see how you can rival me, especially as I am a baron's daughter with seventy-two quarterings in my coat of arms, and yet have served as a kitchen-maid.'"(pg. 49)

Voltaire writes in the character's point of view with the emotion of hopelessness. With the hint of hyperbole and a pinch of irony here and there makes it more and more obvious to the audience that Voltaire some what mocks their grief. Although, at the end of chapter eleven, Voltaire couldn’t resist to describe how a by stander suffers because he couldn’t take advantage of a beautiful lady because he didn’t have his… male genitalia.

As Voltaire was a famous writer at his time period, he used to write famous works and pamphlets involving freedom of the general population and criticizing the French aristocracy.  In doing so, he wrote about citizen lives under misery thus incorporating them into Candide.

Learning from where the old lady came from and how Lady Cunégonde survived, I am eager to read and find out if there are any other people with misfortunes coming from close to death experiences or just not being able to pleasure themselves.

The Wrong Kind of Candid

Candid, truthful and straightforward. Or is it a picture taken without the subjects knowledge? Well both of these descriptions are right, however, Voltaire's Candide might not be either one. The novel is bursting with satire which can be obvious but deceiving.   

From Irony to hyperboles,  Candide includes so much detail and hidden messages that it takes a second time reading to figure out what it really means. It can be funny and witty but also a pain in the neck. Although, once you get what the text is inferring, you just have to compliment Voltaire's wittiness with a "Oh Voltaire, you clever son of a gun!" 

"'I fear love,'said his companion; 'love, the comforter of humanity, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all human beings; tender love!'" (pg. 29)

It is funny how Pangloss, Candide´s philosopher, says these words as he had just experienced a brutal attack by the Bulgars which had raped and massacred the "mansion" that he had been staying with his lords. Yet he states that it is love, that can have many meanings such as caring, affection and loyalty that have nothing to do with harming and hate, even, they are the exact opposite, that is what every human being has in his soul while society is going through wars and destruction. Ironic you ask? Yes.

Voltaire has made it clear to us that he uses satire for mostly, mockery. From the names of the German towns to the way he portrays nobleness, this novel from the looks of it is a labyrinth full of messages at the middle waiting to be found.

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