The Invisiblest of the Invisble Cities

Suprisingly, as I read I encountered one city that seemed real, Leonia. The first until now, at least. Calvino seems to be directly mocking today´s consumerism, this need to buy and dispose rapidly.

"On the sidewalks, encased in spotless plastic bags, the remains of yesterday´s Leonia await in the garbage truck. Not only squeezed tubes of toothpaste, blown-out lightbulbs, newspapers, containers,wrappings, but also boilers, encyclopedias, pianos, porcelain dinner services." (pg. 114)

The last objects listed are those which people wouldn´t just through out, but protect and even pass down to their children. Finding this suprising, Calvino included something I wasn´t looking out for. He is using 1. Irony and 2. Mockery.

The Khan himself uses sarcasm with Polo when he doubts the existence the cities. "...So then, yours is truly a voyage through memory!" the Khan said. Now, even I don´t think they exist. Some are impossible, like Beersheba with its other 2 cities above and underneath it, but Adelma made it clear the cities are made from memory.

Marco Polo had ventured into Adelma and saw people who he knew and had died. Why would he see only people was once related to instead of anybody else? Because these cities are off the top of his head! I´m totally team Khan! This has also made me consider the cities represent something, yet I don´t know what it is, probably something related to reading and forgetting the information you once read. I feel pretty lost and I´m near the end of the book, meaning my path was not the right one.