Concept Illustrations, the city Octavia from
Invisible Cities / Calvino, Italo
Invisible Cities / Calvino, Italo
College, exercise, concept from text.
THIN CITIES 5
If you choose to believe me, good. Now I will tell how Octavia, the spiderweb city, is made. There is a precipice between two steep mountains: the city isover the void, bound to the two crests with ropes and chains and catwalks. You walk on the little wooden ties, careful not to set your foot in the open spaces,or you cling to the hempen strands. Below there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can glimpse thechasm's bed.
This is the foundation of the city: a netwhich serves as passage and as support. All the rest, instead of rising up, ishung below: rope-ladders, hammocks, houses made like sacks, clothes-hangers,terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas jets, spits, baskets on strings,dumb-waiters, showers, trapezes and rings for children's games, cable-cars,chandeliers, pots with trailing plants.
Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia's inhabitants is less uncertain than in other cities. They know the net will last only so long.
If you choose to believe me, good. Now I will tell how Octavia, the spiderweb city, is made. There is a precipice between two steep mountains: the city isover the void, bound to the two crests with ropes and chains and catwalks. You walk on the little wooden ties, careful not to set your foot in the open spaces,or you cling to the hempen strands. Below there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can glimpse thechasm's bed.
This is the foundation of the city: a netwhich serves as passage and as support. All the rest, instead of rising up, ishung below: rope-ladders, hammocks, houses made like sacks, clothes-hangers,terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas jets, spits, baskets on strings,dumb-waiters, showers, trapezes and rings for children's games, cable-cars,chandeliers, pots with trailing plants.
Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia's inhabitants is less uncertain than in other cities. They know the net will last only so long.
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