Our July 11 meeting was a great start for the program: participants were open to the uniqueness of Invisible Cities and were resourceful and specific with their evidence from the text when discussing ideas. Here are some of the ideas discussed:
1) Mr. Cook made the point that the book implicitly encourages us to be more sympathetic to Polo's way of thinking, and Mr. Cook asked whether we can understand or appreciate Khan's position. Later in the class, students argued that elements of Polo's cities (or imagination) such as the cities that are always in flux, in a state of becoming or decaying, unknowable, etc., can cause a deep level of frustration or anxiety. In this way, Khan can be reassuring in his striving for solidity, full understanding, and completeness.
2) Students found the image of "the abyss" to be significant, and one student made the point that the cities' inhabitants, as well as Khan and Polo themselves, often work to protect themselves or deny this unknowable darkness (a particularly clear example being the city suspended above the abyss). When approaching the subject of the abyss (or death, if you will), even in metaphor, Khan and Polo shut down their discussion (i.e. Khan's imagined city of only departures).
3) Other motifs / themes that students pointed out are waste and rubbish as the underside of opulence or idealized forms, the interplay between memory and language (how articulating memory in language can erase or replace memory), Kahn's urge for control being frustrated by the complexities of Polo's descriptions, and the ever-present friction between fear and desire.
4) I asked the students for examples of images, passages, or ideas in the book that they had particular trouble understanding or placing within the framework of the book. One student mentioned the city of smiling faces that multiply all around Polo, while Polo, strangely, does not seem to be disturbed by it. Other students suggested this may be connected to a motif of denial in the book, and it was noted that there is also a motif of faces: faces that are barely recognizable, covered, or in this case, identical and unnervingly happy.
I mentioned that I found myself wondering about the female images in the book. Each city has a feminine name, and there are often very vivid female images. Besides Khan and Polo, there are few male figures that make much of an impression. One student said that this seemed to be Polo's way of keeping Khan's interest -- the manipulations of a storyteller. Others thought it might be tied in with desire, but we were not able to make a satisfying connection.
For those who were unable to come: thank you for sending your quotation response journals. If you were not able to come, we are asking that you respond to one or more of the ideas above in a blog comment. Please write these responses before the next meeting, and they should be around 250 words. They can be attached as a comment to this post.
We're going to tentatively schedule our next meeting for Monday, July 25 at 9:30. The same rules apply: if you are unable to come, please send along a copy of your quotation response journal and look for the blog post afterward. The text is the first half of Invisible Man, chapters 1-15. Thank you, Mr. Telles.
One of the motifs I found most interesting was the one mentioned in the third point: “Kahn's urge for control being frustrated by the complexities of Polo's descriptions.” The constant friction between the two men is a very interesting thing to think about.
ReplyDeleteAs argued in the first point, Polo tends towards the complex, focusing on what is changing, moving, unknowable. This directly clashes with Khan’s interest in control, in having knowledge of his empire. While the book may be partial towards Polo’s perspective, painting Khan as fumbling for understanding while Polo shows that there are limits to what one man can understand. In regards to his empire, how can Khan ever begin to understand it when the complexities within it are so vast?
Khan’s view is, as was evidently discussed via Mr. Cook’s question, not without merit. If one was to attempt to comprehend the deep complexity of which Marco Polo speaks, they would lose all certainty of things. It is, perhaps, a psychological need in humans to have some level of simplicity. We put things into categories, shuffle complexities into patterns that we can understand. This is Khan’s goal. He is only human. The uncertainty and anxiety that Polo’s view can bring about is something that is instinctively prevented by the tendency for order.
But that is not to say that it is not perhaps also instinctual, from within the walls of order and its security, to open the door and peek out into the surroundings. This could be Polo’s role.
Essentially, the two men, though in conflict over their perspectives, complement each other nicely. Marco Polo awakens Kublai Khan from what would otherwise be a stupor of order and oversimplification, and Khan acts as a tether for Polo as he flies upwards into the skies of the unknown.
As mentioned above by Mr. Telles, I too noticed that there was very little mentioned about other males in the book besides Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. I have to agree with the fact that it was to keep Khan's attention because if Polo were to talk about males, Khan would probably not pay as close of attention to his stories. They are males themselves, so desire also plays a key in this factor. The desires of these men lead to the warping of the stories by Polo. He is constantly changes the cities and their complexity. Polo's ideas of the cities (as brought up in the first point)are the changes with the state of it, decaying or becoming, unknown to highly known, causing anxiety in Khan. In this way Khan has no control, which upsets him. Then, (brought up in the second point) the changes in memory and language frustrate Khan and cause him to try and control the situation. This causes friction between the men. Khan likes to be all-knowing about his empire and have complete control and when Polo keeps changing the story, it upsets Kublai Khan.
ReplyDeleteKublai Khan and Marco Polo are two men with endless differences, yet they are able to truly connect on countless levels throughout the novel Invisible Cities. The Khan’s lust for knowledge and ultimate control of his vast empire could not be a farther cry from Marco Polo’s adventurous yet calm and controlled demeanor, but in spite of this, the men are able to shed light on cities and what they really hold, where the human imagination is not necessarily restricted by the laws of physics or the limits of thoughts and ideas. This collision of opposite objectives was noted in point 3, along with the struggle between fear and desire. Even though it may seem paradoxical, the great Khan seems to battle with fear throughout his time with Marco Polo. He distresses over not fully knowing his empire for what it’s worth, and he frets over the stories that Polo tells him. The aging, fearful Khan contrasts the youthful, well traveled and knowledgeable Polo, who is full of desire and passion. The two men compliment each other in a sense, but apart, they are full of complicated dilemmas. An emperor with little control, and a traveler who fears of forgetting his home land is what Invisible Cities is about on the outermost surface, but the underlying struggles and internal turmoil of these two powerful men is what truly constitutes this novel.
ReplyDeleteI really like how all three of you bring up issues of security, control and desire, and yet you allow the ambiguity and ambivalence in the novel to exist without feeling compelled to boil it down to a "life lesson."
ReplyDeleteIt is much easier to sympathize with Polo way of thinking because we can not relate to the thoughts of Kahn. Kahn is a powerful, ruler but his perspective has been suffocated by his confinement to the palace grounds. He is limited in his view and understanding by his own power. Their is a key passage to understanding the difference points of view between the explorer, and the emperor. “ Unless porters, stonecutters, rubbish collectors, cooks, cleaning the lights of chickens,… exist only because we think them.
ReplyDeleteKUBLAI: To tell the truth, I never think of them.
POLO: Then they do not exist.”
Khan is so much above the rest of us, he has trouble seeing the beauty in the small, poor, and decorative. He know of the outside world are numbers, money, war, and power. We as high school students can not appreciate that view of life as greatly as Polo's lust for discovery of culture, and treasure. Most of us, in my belief, wish to see the world, compare it to our lives, and the customs we know, not conquer and rule and collect taxes from the world around us. We are closer to Polo in life therefor it is easier to sympathize with him. Kahn does not have a jury of his peer to understand his views. The men are almost two different cities within in the story. They trade ideas and stories, but they will forever be separated by a sea of experiences.
Invisible cities was a interesting story put together in a original way. the dialog between Marco and Kublai was very small, in fact without the definitions of the cities the conversation would probably boil down into about twenty pages. how ever the cities allow us to form a connection between Marco and Kublai with out long boring conversations. the use the cities to form a friendship, and spend their time contemplating their inner thoughts. As referenced in the book the two could sit their and have a argument with each other without talking, they did both each others part in their head. This relationship between the two allowed the author to sneak in some interesting ideas into the dialog. I don't know if i am the only person who picked up on this or no, but there was quite a few hints into the possibilities of alternate realities, and it is my opinion that each city described is the same city, just that city from a dimension were the builders made drastically different decisions. The author also hints to the possibility of creating alternate realities by thinking something exist. That is what the author did righting this book, he created a new version of the world were Marco Polo and Kublai Khan had these conversations about cities. so to me the author created a new reality, were he used people to hint at the possibility of alternate realities.
ReplyDelete