Idealized Venice

Marco Polo has mentioned all the good qualities of the cities he has visited, but Khan insists that there just can't be such perfect cities. Polo insists that it is not worth talking about the negative aspects of these cities, since no city is perfect. At this point, we can see that Polo opposes pessimism. With Polo as a friend, Khan will probably begin to change his mentality and he will start to be more optimistic about his empire. Remember, I'm just foreshadowing about the text, this doesn't mean that this will eventually happen.

Polo says to Khan: "Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice." (87) Khan doesn't seem to understand his intentions and responds furiously: "When I ask you about other cities, I want to hear about them. And about Venice, when I ask you about Venice." (87) By Khan's reaction, we can see that he is too literal and he doesn't understand the real meaning of what Polo is trying to say. Marco Polo is doing a compilation of all the good qualities of these imaginary cities. In the other hand, it is very important to take into account what Polo avoids mentioning the negative aspects of each city because it doesn't help at all, it simply makes people more selfish and pessimistic. This situation portrays Khan's empire because he only looks towards the dark side and the negative aspects of an empire. Khan doesn't strive to make his empire a better place for everyone, instead he dreams of finding the ideal city, which is Venice.

There is a point in the book where Polo states that he is being sarcastic when talks about the good qualities of these cities. Khan does not understand his sarcasm, which makes his interpretation of these cities totally opposite to Polo's.

"The empire is being crushed by its own weight," Kublai thinks, and his dream now cities light as kites appear, pierced cities like laces, cities transparent as mosquito netting, cities like leaves veins, cities linked like a hand's palm, filigree cities to be seen through their opaque and fictitious thickness" (78)
At this point, I finally understood the meaning of the title "Invisible Cities." All the cities mentioned by Polo do not exist, they are just dreams and aspirations. They are "transparent as mosquito netting" because they are impossible to reach and to live in.

Polo's sarcasm and the way he portrays this cities proves that our society is a total failure. Khan is a perfect representation of naivety. He thinks that the ideal city is one with and ideal economy and wealth for the whole community, but is this really what life is about? Isn't life about humor, about making fun of our reality like Polo does?  It is difficult to change our reality, but it helps if we make fun of it instead of lamenting it all the time.