tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post3165479065179507257..comments2024-02-25T01:48:45.848-07:00Comments on Mr. Center's Wall: INVISIBLE CITIES XII -- Chapter 1, ..... 2Joseph Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-68757637351708511552011-06-04T16:21:06.298-06:002011-06-04T16:21:06.298-06:003. All of the cities seem to tie directly to memo...3. All of the cities seem to tie directly to memory almost no matter what else the title says. It really makes me want to come up with a full and broad definition for MEMORY....<br />5. Yes. Presumptuous for the Khan ever to hope he might "possess" the empire and its cities.<br />6. I agree. What I LOVE about the revelation of language difficulty here is that it puts at the forefront--exaggerates it--the primary difficulties and IMPOSSIBILITIES in cross-language discussion--interpretation versus translation, and that it is impossible to fully GET what one person is saying when that person comes not only from a different language but from a different--and vastly different--culture.Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-50615039580711085242011-06-04T10:27:03.942-06:002011-06-04T10:27:03.942-06:00I think that our interpretations of the final line...I think that our interpretations of the final line at least are pretty much the same. And I agree that it was good timing.<br /><br />1. So true. That's why Machiavelli said that if you wish to keep a place that you've conquered, you have to there to live.<br />2. Yeah, this was a pretty crazy twist. I think that it explains the vagueness because we're getting the most basic, the very essence of each city for the simple fact that this is all that Polo can get across.<br />3. Yeah, this is reminding me more and more of "The Mysterious Flame" as we go along, just in the way that it explores the mind.<br />5. I think that the answer is telling. You never really can possess it. You can have some mental idea of what it means to possess it, but the city's ultimately incomprehensible and as diverse as the thoughts of the people living in it.<br />6. Very possibly wrong. And I don't think that it's going to change it much just because, even with his limited language, he could have picked more superficial things to talk about, but he focused on the spirit of the cities instead, so I think that he'll continue to do that.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.com