Having fun wandering through the city of SLO finding the invisible cities. Underneath the stairs that lead down to the creek are hanging cobwebs of a past city or maybe a future city and possibly a city of the unborn, watching us from below waiting to come alive.
"Newly arrived and totally ignorant of the Levantine languages, Marco Polo could express himself only with gestures, leaps, cries of wonder and of horror, animal barkings or hootings, or with objects he took from his knapsacks--ostrich plumes, pea-shooters, quartzes--which he arranged in front of him like chessmen. Returning from the missions on which Kublai sent him, the ingenious foreigner improvised pantomimes that the sovereign had to interpret: one city was depicted by the leap of a fish escaping the cormorant's beak to fall into a net; another city by a naked man running through fire unscorched; a third by a skull, its teeth green with mold clenching a round, white pearl. The Great Khan deciphered the signs, but the connection between them and the places visited remained uncertain; he never knew whether Marco wished to enact an adventure that had befallen him on his journey, an wxploit of the city's founder, the prophecy of an astrologer, a rebus or a charade to indicate a name. But obscure or obvious as it might be, everything Marco displayed had the power of emblems, which, once seen, cannot be forgotten or confused." -Calvino pp.21-22
I've come back to this narrative in my reading of Roman Jakobsons essay, "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation."
"An array of linguistic signs is needed to introduce an unfamiliar word. Mere pointing will not teach us whether 'cheese' is the name of the given specimen, or of any box of camembert, or of camembert in general or of any cheese, any milk product, any food, any refreshment, or perhaps any box irrespective of contents."
...currently making gestures and leaps to describe my thoughts on the book.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good way to start 2009!
ReplyDeleteHaving fun wandering through the city of SLO finding the invisible cities. Underneath the stairs that lead down to the creek are hanging cobwebs of a past city or maybe a future city and possibly a city of the unborn, watching us from below waiting to come alive.
ReplyDelete"Newly arrived and totally ignorant of the Levantine languages, Marco Polo could express himself only with gestures, leaps, cries of wonder and of horror, animal barkings or hootings, or with objects he took from his knapsacks--ostrich plumes, pea-shooters, quartzes--which he arranged in front of him like chessmen. Returning from the missions on which Kublai sent him, the ingenious foreigner improvised pantomimes that the sovereign had to interpret: one city was depicted by the leap of a fish escaping the cormorant's beak to fall into a net; another city by a naked man running through fire unscorched; a third by a skull, its teeth green with mold clenching a round, white pearl. The Great Khan deciphered the signs, but the connection between them and the places visited remained uncertain; he never knew whether Marco wished to enact an adventure that had befallen him on his journey, an wxploit of the city's founder, the prophecy of an astrologer, a rebus or a charade to indicate a name. But obscure or obvious as it might be, everything Marco displayed had the power of emblems, which, once seen, cannot be forgotten or confused."
ReplyDelete-Calvino pp.21-22
I've come back to this narrative in my reading of Roman Jakobsons essay, "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation."
ReplyDelete"An array of linguistic signs is needed to introduce an unfamiliar word. Mere pointing will not teach us whether 'cheese' is the name of the given specimen, or of any box of camembert, or of camembert in general or of any cheese, any milk product, any food, any refreshment, or perhaps any box irrespective of contents."