ALL ABOUT CITIES 我城

Let me share my favourite novel, “Invisible Cities” written by Italo Calvino, a renowned Italian writer. The novel explores imagination and descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo, through his conversation with aging emperor Kublai Khan. The book offers an alternative approach to thinking about cities, how they are formed and how they function, by depicting the nature of cities, as well as the relationship between memory, desire, symbols, name, sight, sky, death and cities. I am always amazed by the structured and interlocking pattern of the book for its complexity. And that’s why it is my all-time favourite.

就談談我最喜愛的小說吧。意大利大文豪卡爾維諾的作品《看不見的城市》，講述馬可波羅在年老的忽必烈大汗的皇宮中，向大汗抽述他在帝國遊歷的所見所聞。藉着勾勒各個天馬行空城市的形象，卡爾維諾成功將各種城市的概念，並其存在及消亡的原因，比如說城市與記憶、慾望、符號、名字、眼睛、天空和死亡等的關係，展現於讀者眼前。作者最教我瞠目結舌的，也不單是其遼闊無邊的想像力，更在於他對小說結構的執着。最初翻閱的時候，會被其繁複如迷宮的架構所困擾，但堅持讀下去，便開始發現這迷宮的編排原來井然有序，教人驚詫讚嘆。