Tying the Knots

Gods.

An important ongoing theme in the book.

Gods are first mentioned on Cities & Memory 1. When Diomira is described to have a “bronze statue of all the gods” (Pg. 7)

Cities & Memory 5, Maurilia, “the gods who live beneath names and above places have gone off without a word and outsiders have settled in their places.” (pg.31)

Cities and Signs 1, the city of Tamara, “from the doors of the temples the gods’ statues are seen, each portrayed with his attributes-…” (Pg.13).

Thin Cities 1, Isaura. It is explained that there are two kinds of religions in this city. “The city’s gods… live in the depths, in the black lake that feeds the underground streams. According to others, the gods live in the buckets that rise, suspended form a cable…” (Pg. 20)

Can there be an important message behind the gods? Is Calvino trying to tell us something about religion?  I mean, apart from the fact that religion is an important part of a community’s character and culture, does it have something else?

While looking for patterns in religion and gods, I found that water is also mentioned a lot. Canals, seas, wells, ships, lakes, streams are all mentioned whilst describing the cities. It sometimes made me think Marco Polo was narrating the same city but with different descriptions. 

If you pay close attention while reading you’ll find, or at least I did, that in many of the cities descriptions such as stairways, canals, seas, and statues within others, are constant and although barely mentioned, they are the things that make the cities alike. Not only material things, but for example in the cities of Cities & Desires, most, if not all of them talk about a way to earn money or wealth. Either by working, trading, or family monopolies they are obtaining a form of wealth. Fulfilling their desires. It also shows the consequences of excess, when it mentions that even though the citizens or visitors enjoy fulfilling their desires, they are after all the slaves of those desires.