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Invisible Cities, The Origin and Growth of Urbanization

In Invisible Cities Italo Calvino presented a fictional rendition of Marco Polo’s accounts of nine cities he visited while on various expeditions. The cities were arranged in one of the four groups: memory, desire, thinness, and signs. Each city’s arrangement was based on how the city felt upon visiting and its lasting impression. Diomira, a memorable city, was described as familiar because of its common characteristics found in many other cities. The unusual detail that made Diomira memorable was its ability to make a man feel envious because his experiences were not unique.

One of the many desirable cities described by Calvino was Anastasia. Polo recounted many goods sold in Anastasia which was the cause of its desirably but cautioned that those living in the city were slaves to their desire and that enslavement kept the city going. The city of Isaura was categorized as thin because of its natural resource and subsequent religions born of the extraction of this resource. It was possible that a disagreement between believers could disrupt the city’s delicate balance. The cities characterized by their signage were overwhelmingly full of symbols and objects that the actual qualities were lost beneath their signs, as seen in Tamara.

InThe Origin and Growth of Urbanization in the World Davis discussed the inception and progression of urbanization. He traced the beginning of cities and towns to the year 6000 B.C. These original cities were made possible through inventions, adequate agricultural conditions and a social hierarchy that would justify the production of goods by cultivators for the benefit of others. Urbanization was not widespread, and cities were relatively small because of the work required to sustain its citizens. The odds of a city or town being successful were low because of the imminent threat from neighboring towns, barbarians, and internal revolutions. The movement of urbanization to newer regions and an increase in technology allowed for higher populations. Movement away from agriculture as the sole form of production in the city and an increase in trading allowed more cities to be erected. Davis stated the percentage of humans living in an urban area had increased rapidly over the past two hundred years and predicted urbanization would not be slowed. With the increase in urbanization, Davis predicted that the world had not yet reached the peak of urbanization. Davis ended with the suggestion that rurality would be obsolete, and cities would be mostly metropolitan areas.

When considering Calvino’s fictional cities and Davis’ projections on urbanization it can be determined that the future of humanity is optimistic. As a result of urbanization, the world population might become more cohesive since the development of cities is dependent on world trade. Overcrowding of cities would also be avoided based on Davis prediction that “urbanization in the sense of emptying the countryside and concentrating huge numbers in little space will reverse itself-[…] in that of spreading [people] more evenly over the land for purposes of residence and industrial world” (Davis 437) which would allow for a better quality of life. Calvino’s fictional cities of the past do not reflect the future form of cities.

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