Eternity Lasts and Instant: Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, Chapters IV-VI

People’s lives are comprised of a variety of moments and experiences that are cumulatively added together in order engender an existence. An illusion of time is created in order to satisfy man’s urge to dominate the universe; however, life’s paradoxical character makes eternity an instant. Italo Calvino’s book Invisible Cities, as well as the film Waking Life, present various schemes that develop in different contexts and indicate how a single moment can comprise the universe’s endless diversity and indisputable truths.
“Not the labile mists of memory nor the dry transparence, but the charring of burned lives that forms a scab on the city, the sponge swollen with vital matter that no longer flows, the jam of past, present, future that blocks existences calcified in the illusion of movement: this is what you would find at the end of your journey.” (Calvino, p. 99).
As the previous quote explains, memory is subject to change every time a new experience is encountered. The perspective one possesses on existence itself is altered every instant by both the actions and emotions one commits or fails to execute. Transparence may symbolize the air itself, dry and impalpable. Even though some may argue that the concept of a “dry transparence” is too vague to be analyzed, this symbol defines reality in the same sense memories give meaning to the past and present existence: air is the medium through which the self is able to perceive that which surrounds him. Ironically, human beings themselves act as the mist that bars the mind and body, like a scab or a sponge, from achieving a complete understanding of existentialist thought. It is important to notice how the author refers to time as “jammed,” meaning that the past, present, and future all converge in order to form one sole unit. Movement, as is explained by the quote, is merely an “illusion,” a creation enacted by the human mind in order to provide explanations and perpetrate mankind’s dominion of nature. The “end of your journey,” or the culmination of life, gives way to an intricate yet infinite state unknown to any individual inhabiting the planet. It is then when one realizes that existence, now complete after one’s permanence on Earth has been terminated, is not a compilation of events that have taken place over a period of time, but rather one sole instant contained together for infinity. Like the man in the arcade in the movie Waking Life said, “time is an illusion – we live in an instant: eternity.” (Waking Life).

Both Invisible Cities and Heart of Darkness discuss the contrasting characteristics of light and darkness. Although Conrad’s novel does so in a more explicit manner, Calvino is able to perceive human feelings through a figurative definition of the concepts stated above. “If you want to know how much darkness there is around you, you must sharpen your eyes, peering at the faint lights in the distance.” (Calvino, p. 59). This passage poses a contradiction in the sense that in order for someone to be aware of the darkness that surrounds them, the person must be able to scrutinize the “faint lights in the distance.” Like the Judeo-Christian Bible, a comparison between opposite elements needs to be established in order to provide a clear definition of each of these aspects. Figuratively, the “faint lights” in this quote represent those individuals who are good in essence. Once one has had a glimpse of them, other people will seem more evil by comparison. It is important to emphasize that darkness abounds but that light is scarce; consequently, one can infer that the forces of evil dominate our daily lives, but that these are so common that one is barely able to notice them.

Heart of Darkness provides a wide variety of instances where darkness is mentioned. All of these refer to the jungle, or the place where Kurtz employed his brutal and evil methods in order to obtain the ivory that was bound to satisfy his worldly desires. “I saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the river,- seemed to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart.” (p. 59). Darkness extends throughout the vast magnitude of the Earth, making it contrast sharply with the land’s “sunlit face,” which the absence of light seems to irrevocably overwhelm. The “lurking death” and “hidden evil” invade the heart of darkness, or the jungle itself. The fact that it is “lurking” and “hidden” makes it much more treacherous and dangerous. Although Calvino uses darkness to define human conduct and Conrad utilized this concept in order to provide an explanation for its boundless influence, both of them cohere in the sense that evil remains hidden and unseen, yet possesses a universal influence.