Conservation of the Primitive

I'm finally pulling out of the darkness. Calvino has opened our eyes with important connections I hadn't previously understood. Whenever we find dialogue between Kublai and Marco it's now clear to me Calvino is communicating with the readers through metaliterature. He uses this as an added meaning to the actual text. Its the book commenting on itself giving us further understanding between the literal text and the figurative understanding. 

"All this so that Marco Polo could explain or imagine explaining or be imagined explaining or succeed finally in explaining to himself that what he sought was always something lying ahead, and even if it was a matter of the past it was a past that changed gradually as he advanced on his journey, because the traveller's past changes according to the route he has followed: not the immediate past, that is, to which each day that goes by adds a day, but the more remote past."

This quote gave me a very broad interpretation of what both Calvino wanted to transmit to us figuratively and what the text was literally commenting on. There's something very interesting to how your past and your own life experiences form your future life. I'll be moving a bit off topic to talk about Sigmund Freud. He talks about something called "conservation of the primitive" which I found to relate completely to Calvino's text. Its your life experiences as a young boy, some which you don't even remember, what form your life and your interpretation of different challenges that will be presented to you throughout it. Freud says deep inside your subconscious these events form behavioral trends, directly affecting your life. Calvino is making reference to the fact that we are unable to ignore our past actions for they will make us who we are. 

Looking at it through metaliterature I came to realize how the whole issue of past and present could be talking about how the "utopia's" description we are reading will lead us to a final conclusion we'll soon come to discover. Our future changes as it is and understanding of the past.