INVISIBLE CITIES XVII -- Thin Cities: ZENOBIA

source here

Not much in the way of questions with Zenobia, but a couple thoughts, especially as they apply to what I said in the last post about the important I lay upon an author's creative source for a particular work: is it as pointless for me to do that as it is for a traveler to determine whether Zenobia is a happy or unhappy city?  While I can't full define it at the moment, these two questions, as well as the alternative Calvino offers on the second, seem strangely parallel.

So what do you think of Zenobia?  There are, of course, the typical questions I could ask.  Answer a question I haven't asked--whatever you think that might be?  I don't see everything--not by any stretch of the imagination; and my one limited viewpoint is in a bit of a rut.  What am I not touching upon, and what is the answer?
Why is Zenobia a Thin City rather than a City [of] Desire (and is my "of" rather than the given "and" significantly altering the meaning?)?

INVISIBLE CITIES XI -- Thin Cities: ISAURA

underground lake in Mexico

Isaura: refers to an ancient mountain district in Asia Minor.  I can't efficiently summarize the article--or don't want to--so will leave the reading of it to you.  Application to the vignette?

1. As it seems always to be the final line that offers the framework, we'll start there.  Isaura being the city moving ever upward, we might be inclined to think it a metaphor for deep spirituality and religiosity.  That cannot be the case, as I see it, as their gods are, whether in the wells themselves or the provenances that draw up the water, below them, in which case, are they not always moving away from their gods?  Thoughts?  Compare this to the more common religions whose gods are above and hell or the underworld (hence the name, duh) below.  In which direction is the majority of humanity heading?
2. As it appears literally impossible to draw ourselves away from Kim, I'm not going to bother trying now.  We've spoken once before of windlasses (such a cool word; but even better: noria).  Would it be untoward to ascribe Christian symbolism to the wells/fonts of Isaura?
3. What of the calcareous sky (seashells and coral reefs, by the way, are calcareous, as well as many of the more striking features of caves)?  It seems it's the "sky" to the underground lake.  If there are indeed gods below, their only egress is the holes--the wells--poked into their heavens, and put there, not by natural sources, but people.  T.E. Hulme described the night sky as a star-eaten blanket, indicating holes; as lace, again riddled with holes and fissures; and, unlike the previous two, as the white, wistful faces of the village children.  I don't know where I'm going with this, but the image I'm getting from the dark of the lake's surface looking up at the wells above is magnetic.
4. I lived in a city built over an underground lake, called Treviso, in the Veneto region of North-Eastern Italy, just a half-hour outside of Venice by train.  It was nicknamed "Little Venice" for it's many canals.  In a rather drab corner of the city (which was otherwise absolutely beautiful) was a single spigot that tapped into that lake.  While we were encouraged to buy our drinking water in all other cities, we were actually recommended to bottle water directly from the spigot in Treviso--if we could wait out the line always queuing up behind it.  Again, not sure where I'm going with this, but thought you might find it interesting.
5. Finally (and I almost forgot), why "Thin Cities"?

KIM II -- chapter 1.2: RED BULL & RED BEARD -- INDEED GIFT THEY WINGS?

differential windlass: wikipedia

Beginning with: "Kim followed like a shadow. What he had overheard excited him wildly. This man was entirely new to all his experience, and he meant to investigate further: precisely as he would have investigated a new building or a strange festival in Lahore city. The lama was his trove, and he purposed to take possession. Kim's mother had been Irish too."

1. "I worshipped none, child. I bowed before the Excellent Law."  Meaning?
2. Already so alike Aladdin, he also resembles a little the various comic renditions of Robin Hood.
3. The answer is no rare point of discussion on the blog: what is Kim's interracial/-cultural passport, also earning him the epithet, "Little Friend of All the World"? 
4. The Lama's bald honesty engenders a patronizing sort of protectiveness in Kim for his new master.  Regarding the honesty: is the Lama so naive; is Kim so jaded?
5. We know a little more about the River than we do the Red Bull, but clearly they are similar.  Any there any insights here, yet, regarding their similarities?  Now about the Pillars and the Wheel: again, we know more about the Lama's ambitions than Kim's, simply because Kim doesn't understand them himself yet, but those Pillars remind me, likely faultily, of the pillars crumbled by Samson.  Thoughts?  And what about the Wheel?  Dante speaks of Fortune's Wheel, though that is pretty much nothing at all like the Buddhist Wheel otherwise in question.
6. Obviously this is subtle, and likely too subtle to be intentional, or at least not likely intended to be found by the reader, but I can't help but draw up a metaphor for the windlass as it compares to both Kim and the Lama.  Of course, it's situation among all the novelties of the bazar points away from this, and maybe toward another metaphor, but the windlass, as an implement in this case for drawing water from a well, indicates what of the boy and man?
7. The letting of rooms between the walled--indeed imurred--arches of the aque-/viaduct (and this is another out-of-context comparison, but interesting nonetheless) reminds me of something I read some time ago (a little of which may be found here at my generous, online standby) about an old masons' tradition of entombing a person (dead or yet-alive) into the foundation of a bridge or other building, as a sort of pagan offering in request of strength and blessing and luck.
8. When Kim is left with the horse-trader, the trader asks him what's going on, to which Kim responds, "Nothing. I am now that holy man's disciple; and we go a pilgrimage together—to Benares, he says. He is quite mad, and I am tired of Lahore city. I wish new air and water."  Is he telling the truth, as it seems to conflict, at least a little, with what he's told the Lama, or is he rhetorically shifting his motives for the sake of the horse-trader?
9. (Anybody got an edition with footnotes?  What the heck is C.25.1B., R.17, M.4?  They have the appearance of being something like labels for sections of legal code, but they are used more like names.)
10. I've got a bit of an issue with the story of Mahbub and the stallion and the 5 kings.  Narratively, it appears to have little reason to exist beyond an impetus to get Kim and the Lama out of town and on the road.  Likely I am wrong, but I couldn't help (third time this post) making a perhaps extraneous connection:  Kim's father's "prophecy" claims that a Red Bull will appear to help his son.  Well, Mahbub is, to put it obviously, rather bullish by nature (despite, of course, the Hindu sanctity of the bovine; though Mahbub is no Hindu) and he has a red beard, albeit dyed.  Hmm.