Interpreting Invisible Cities with Illustrations

In the second part of the book, we get introduced to Maurilia, a postcard city. Here the recurrent discussion of change, and perception of change is metaphorized through an old and new Maurilia, in fact, multiple cities with the same name, same inhabitants but different spatial & physical attributes. The postcard city of Maurilia documents the bygone times, which is now savoured as graceful memories, but which projected no grace when it existed even to her own inhabitants; but today, the inhabitants with the same names, accents and facial features reminisce the postcard city with great appreciation and nostalgia. Is this metaphorical to the fact that we tend to value things once we lose them, and frame that memory through gateways of extravagant imagery (postcards), a 3x5 corroboration of a view of “our memory”; but is it truly representative of the intangible that goes beyond and within (reference of gods in original text), making it a city it was then? Is it that we consciously chose to pick a picture-perfect memory and set it as a benchmark, to compare the future possibilities which may emerge beyond the comprehensible exegesis of the benchmark itself? Do we still stick to the same yardstick of static city names, peoples’ names and their faces across space and time, unaware of the bare truth that there’s no connection whatsoever between these cities — old and new, but simply a magnificent past that we want to remember in a calibrated dosage, so as to not be regretful of our present and future possibilities. <a href="https://medium.com/@pooja.tarun.patel/interpreting-invisible-cities-with-illustrations-85a777551d8c">Learn More</a>