Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. Boston, New York: Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017
This land is twice fictional, as it is a fictional character's phantasies what creates it. Cosimo, who left the earth to leave in the trees, is an adventurer, a storyteller and a philosopher of the 18th century. His imaginary country of Arborea -- which is mentioned in passing only -- is anutopia, a perfect state which never becomes reality. The name features an -a ending, a popular choice with creators of fictional lands (though normally it becomes -ia, as in Ruritania). Note a curious intertwining of stories of Cosimo, a fictional character, and Diderot, a real figure, in the fictional episode of their correspondence. Diderot's appearance lends more verisimilitude to Cosimo's existence.
"... he [Cosimo] began writing a Plan for the Establishment of an Ideal State Based in the Trees, in which he described the imaginary Republic of Arborea, inhabited by just men. He started it as a treatise on laws and governments, but as he wrote his inclinations as an inventor of complicated stories gained the upper hand, and the result was a mixture of adventures, duels, and erotic tales, the last inserted in a chapter on marriage law. The book's epilogue should have been this: the author, having founded the perfect state in the treetops and having convinced all humanity that it should establish itself there and live happily, descended to live on the now deserted earth. It should have been, but the work remained unfinished. He sent a summary to Diderot, signing it simply "Cosimo Rondò, reader of the Encyclopedia." Diderot sent him a thank-you note." (pp. 200-201)
This land is twice fictional, as it is a fictional character's phantasies what creates it. Cosimo, who left the earth to leave in the trees, is an adventurer, a storyteller and a philosopher of the 18th century. His imaginary country of Arborea -- which is mentioned in passing only -- is anutopia, a perfect state which never becomes reality. The name features an -a ending, a popular choice with creators of fictional lands (though normally it becomes -ia, as in Ruritania). Note a curious intertwining of stories of Cosimo, a fictional character, and Diderot, a real figure, in the fictional episode of their correspondence. Diderot's appearance lends more verisimilitude to Cosimo's existence.
"... he [Cosimo] began writing a Plan for the Establishment of an Ideal State Based in the Trees, in which he described the imaginary Republic of Arborea, inhabited by just men. He started it as a treatise on laws and governments, but as he wrote his inclinations as an inventor of complicated stories gained the upper hand, and the result was a mixture of adventures, duels, and erotic tales, the last inserted in a chapter on marriage law. The book's epilogue should have been this: the author, having founded the perfect state in the treetops and having convinced all humanity that it should establish itself there and live happily, descended to live on the now deserted earth. It should have been, but the work remained unfinished. He sent a summary to Diderot, signing it simply "Cosimo Rondò, reader of the Encyclopedia." Diderot sent him a thank-you note." (pp. 200-201)
