The creators of our own freewill

“ I realized I had to free myself from the images which in the past had announced to me the things I sought: only then would I succeed in understanding…”(pg 48)

This passage taken from Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities is one of the very few passages that summarize the main idea that is being communicated to the reader throughout the novel. In my opinion, this idea consists that life is about perspectives. Everything around us is viewed differently because we are individuals, we are the creators of our own theories and at times we might say that the problem with the world is that we are not able to completely accept and understand the opinions of others which is due to the one factor that makes us blind to all other perspectives, our own. This is the reason why when Marco Polo suggests in this passage that should free ourselves from the images of the past to fully comprehend what is happening around us. That is forgetting about our perspective, as in completely clearly our mind, and allowing other ideas flow efficiently through our minds. But, as I will explain further on, this idea on perspectives not only does it appear in the novel but it also applies to our day-to-day life and especially in the virtual drama, Façade.

In fact, this very idea could be also related to the reason why the novel is titled the way it is. The cities described by Marco Polo in the novel are in reality completely invisible to the Great Khan because there exists the possibility that if Kublai Khan were to actually visit these same cities, he would view them differently and therefore making Marco Polo’s cities invisible to him. In fact, this rule applies to everyday life. What one may see will always be invisible to the other person; the only thing visible to you is your perspective and opinion on the subject, you will never be able to fully comprehend the other person’s opinion because again you will always compare it to your own and therefore making yourself invisible to others and vice versa. Again, I will mention the passage from which this essay started with, the only solution to our troubles is that of getting rid of our own thoughts in order to take one step into the future. But this is not possible because we only see what we want to see. “…That those who strive in camps and ports exist only because we two think of them, here, enclosed among these bamboo hedges, motionless since time began.”(Pg 117) This is the point in the novel where this of ‘seeing is believing’ idea comes up. It is where Khan actually decides to begin describing the cities he has imagined in his dreams to Marco Polo with the hope that these exist. But as Marco Polo later reveals in the book, every city that Khan dreams of does exist because if he is able to imagine them then they exist. In other words, whatever it is one person may want to see is what they will actually see. We are also able to relate this to the game, Façade. After various attempts with various outcomes of the ending of the game, I realized that there existed a certain pattern. That the game revolved mainly about solving a couple’s marital issues, but this was not possible because each one had a different perspective on the issue. I, myself did not achieve in the couple’s finding a reasonable solution therefore I am not sure that this is possible, but based on my experience with the game, my character could have said many things and could have taken sides with the couple, but in the end there was no understanding whatsoever. So we may say that, what one individual in the game saw was completely invisible to the other and therefore creating a great barrier between them and the solution to their problem.

So not only does this theory apply to both the novel and the game but it can also be related to the one subject that we have seen throughout the course. That is, free will. We had various discussions on freewill vs. predestination, and in my opinion the simple fact that life is based on perspectives and the barriers that these create, in the end freewill prevails over predestination. Because it is our decision whether we let go of our perspectives and make ourselves invisible to others or not, it is our own freewill that controls us.

Another point I would like to make would be that of the cycle of life. To me the book communicated the great importance of all the elements that make up our life, whether they are bad or good, sad or happy, they are what make life unique and beautiful. What would life be if there were no ups and downs? This is what Marco Polo begins to explain to Kublai Khan. In fact, most of these cities contain specific elements such as memories, desires, death, etc. There were passages in the book to which I could relate to my life, emotions that cities made me feel and I realized that some of these were phases that each and every one of us would have gone through. For example, take the city of Adelma where “..you reach a moment in life when among the people you have known, the dead outnumber the living. And the mind refuses to accept more faces, more expressions: on every new face you encounter, it prints the old forms, for each one it finds the most suitable mask.”(pg 95)To me, this description of the city made me think about the moment in life where we let the fear of death overcome our minds, we begin to think of what lies ahead of us and sometimes some of us let that fear overcome the desire to live. There is also the city of Eusapia where “ No city is more inclined than Eusapia to enjoy life and flee care.” (pg 109) This reminds me of when we begin to enjoy life more freely, we believe there are no limits to our actions and live out those moments that truly matter. Therefore the idea of all these different emotions making life at it is can be reinforced with the fact that Marco Polo reveals to Kublai Khan that the city he has been speaking of the whole time has been Venice. As if to say, our analogy could be stated as this: Venice being life is made up by different cities, which can be emotions and faces that we experience in our lifetime. Without these, Venice or life, cannot be what it actually is.

But as always in life, the one common goal that we as humans seek out is that of happiness. Which we can find both in the book and in the game. In the game for example, the couple seeks a solution to the problem, and of course the best solution should contain the happiness for both individuals. In the novel, we also find the pursuit of happiness from both Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Marco Polo seeks to find a city where he will feel the need to explore no more and Khan seeks to find a solution to his kingdom expanding which would bring him great happiness.

When talking about how perspectives influence your life a very important question comes up: Will you let your perspective control you and create barriers? Or will you rid yourself of this? How will you do such a thing? And finally is a person capable of having freewill without it controlling you?