Conquering Your Own Creation: Your Knowledge

After reading Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino I have decided that I have no clue of what is going on in his mind. I do not understand the book very well. I wonder, has the author given us two ways to read the book for a reason? Or is he just fooling us and let us understand the book on different perspectives? At the end of the first section I got a bit of an idea of what might be going on. MOments after discussing this in class I thought to myself that the idea that was exposed in class had to be right. This idea consisted as seeing the literal parts of the book as the empire tha Kublai Khan is conquering, the figurative as the power, and the metaliterature used in the book as the reader. So, let me expand on this idea a bit more. If Kublai Khan is trying to conquer an empire, if we twist it to the reasoning proposed in class it might make sense. He is trying to conquer knowldge. He talks about tnemy troops, which I find as things that he doesn't know or understand. It is an assimilation, the book describes itself and portrays the reader in the story as Kublai Khan.

"On the day when I know all the emblems," he asked Marco, "shall I be able to possess my empire at last?" And the Venetian answered: "Sire, do not believe it. On that day you will be an emblem among emblems." (Page 23) Let's analyze that last frase for a moment. What is Calvino trying to symbolize with an emblem?  I belive that the Venetian, Marco, is saying that the day that he understands and knows it all (the book for us), then he will just be part of it. He will become part of the book. Another emblem among emblems. The book in a way is like a vicious circle. It goes around a point again and again. Like a spiral.

When I read Stephanie Vainberg's blog, she talked about spirals. She says that whe live by the law of spirals and that we are destined to take turns and go in circles. In a way she is right, it just repeats. It is a spiral. Just like the story is describing itself, recreating itself. Therefore the connection with the spiral. But I think that we and Kublai Khan make our own destiny. That not necessarily must we understand it one way and become part of the book. That we can change our destiny and make many things out of the knowledge we conquer to keep building the empire. At one point he also says that desires and dreams are memories. Going back to the recreation point. It is true. What you imagine and what you dream of is based on memories that reacreate themselves. Desires are memories recreated. This guy is a genius honestly. I have so many doubts of where he wants to go with this book I mean, what will be is conclusion in the end. I can't make sense of the book yet or imagine any end by myself. There is much more empire to conquer, and much more knowldge to attain while reading this book. We still have many enemy troops that attack us with things we don't know. The only solution is to give it time and thought. Let's see what this empire can bring and show us. In the end it won't matter because we will be "an emblem among emblems".