Invisible Cities
Featuring Lisa Schweitzer and David Sloane
In this special edition of the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast, we discuss the Italian classic novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The ancient emperor, Kublai Khan is so busy running the empire that he needs merchants to describe his vast empire, the great explorer Marco Polo is the only one whose imaginative descriptions of the cities of the empire help Khan learn about his dominion. Framed between the conversation between the two are Polo’s fantastical descriptions of the cities he visits – fables to discuss ideas from linguistics to urban theory. This short novel has become a favorite to use in courses here at the Price School of Public Policy … let’s find out why.
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To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast discussion of Invisible Cities, click the arrow in the player on this page. Or you can download it and subscribe through Soundcloud or iTunes!
Some inspired images
Invisible Cities: Ersilia from Sara Muzio on Vimeo.
Manuel Castells – USC Research Associate Professor of Communication
Next month . . .
We’ll look at self-reinforcement of disparity, with a look at the locked-in nature of racism in Daria Roithmayr’s Reproducing Racism.
Visit our Bedrosian Book Club Podcast page for the list of books that we’ve already discussed. You can always listen to the archives through Soundcloud or iTunes!
And please share your comments with us on Twitter or Facebook, we love to hear your suggestions and thoughts.
Lisa and David read from the following cities:
Perinthia (Cities & the Sky) Andria (Cities & the Sky) Sophronia (Thin Cities) Trude (Continuous Cities) Ersilia (Trading Cities) Tamara (Cites & Signs) Hypatia (Cities & Signs) Zora (Cities & Memory)Links:
Some inspired images
Invisible Cities: Ersilia from Sara Muzio on Vimeo.
Manuel Castells – USC Research Associate Professor of Communication
The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective – July 30, 2005 by Manuel Castells (Editor)
The prevalence of harmful content on outdoor advertising in Los Angeles: land use, community characteristics, and the spatial inequality of a public health nuisance by Lowery, Bryce C; Sloane, David C. American journal of public health, 04/2014, Volume 104, Issue 4 Social constuction of the experience economy: The spatial ecology of outdoor advertising in Los Angeles by Lowery, Bryce C.View Profile. University of Southern California, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2014. 3628234. The Past is a Foreign Country by David Lowenthal.Of Further Interest:
Hear Italo Calvino Read Selections From Invisible Cities, Mr. Palomar & Other Enchanting Fictions Seeing CalvinoThis podcast was produced by Jonathan Schwartz and Aubrey Hicks.
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