The Body of a Woman

As I read in my chosen order, I realized 1 thing: every city, even Venice, was named like a woman! Aglaura, Dorothea, Isidora, Armilla, Chloe, etc. Then it hit me. What is these cities were mapping out a women´s body? One may need to draw a city to understand what is happening in the story on a figurative level. One of the cities mentions "two young ladies with white parasols." They could represent 2 eyes, 2 breasts,  or even 2 nostrils. After a few failed attempts, I gave up.

But, women kept appearing much more than men did, excluding the 2 main and only characters in the book. Maybe it was the fact that these stories were memories and that Marco Polo was a male. He would obviously have remembered the women he saw instead of a greasy old guy eating pork.

"In Maurilia, the traveler is invited to visit the city and, at the same time, examine some old post cards that show it as it used to be: the same identical square with a hen in the place of the bus station, a bandstand in the place of the overpass, two young ladies with white parasols in the place of the munitions factory." Pg. 30


As I read, I also came to think these women (the cities) might have been who Marco Polo slept with in distant places. The first few cities had special characteristics a woman could have, like Zirma (pg. 19), in which the same scenario repeated, or Maurilia (mentioned above) in which the woman could be missing her old self and tried to assure herself that the changes have suited her.

Women´s personalities vary so much, it is not suprising there´s a city that corresponds to a woman who exists or has existed.