More Questions Than Answers

After reading the story of Adelma, two things about the story intrigued me.  One thing that interested me was that the story doesn't fully let the reader know what is going on, which leads the reader to think about the answers to questions the story brings up. Another thing about Adelma that I found intriguing is that while it is fantastical, it is also grounded in reality. Everyone has had the feeling when meeting someone for the first time that they have met them before.

One thing I don’t understand about Adelma is that while Marco Polo is visiting the city of Adelma, he doesn’t know if he is dead or alive. But since he is telling this story to the emperor at a later time, does that mean the emperor is dead too or does that mean Marco Polo  visited the afterlife for a while and came back to this life to tell his story to the emperor? 

One thought Marco Polo has while he is in Adelma is that maybe you arrive at Adelma already dead. This brings up the question do we all die and arrive at a city where we see others who have passed while at the same time not remembering our own death? 

Another thought he has, which is much more plausible, is that he has reached a point where you know more people who have died then are still living and since the mind cannot take in any more faces it puts the faces of people you knew in the past on new people you meet in the present.  This brings up the question, when we meet who we think are new people, are they really new or are have we known them before?

Basically after reading Adelma, I was left with more questions than answers. The story of Adelma definitely made me want to read the entire book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.  I want to read the rest of the book not only because Adelma is so well-written, but because maybe after reading other stories in the book, I can come to a better understanding of what the underlining meaning of Adelma is.