I picked up Imaginary Cities based on a year-end recommendation from the A.V. Club. I expected it to describe imaginary cities (from Atlantis and Xanadu to Metropolis and New Crobuzon from Perdido Street Station) and examine what their construction tells us about our attitudes towards real cities. I hoped it might also compare purely fictional world-building to the literary presentation of "real" cities like Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul or The Third Man's Vienna.
Unfortunately, Imaginary Cities takes a different approach. Anderson writes in an epigrammatic style that moves (too) quickly from point to point while tossing out unattributed references to high and low culture. It feels like Anderson is trying to disguise his jejune observations with a thicket of allusions and lit-crit theory to make them seem profound.
Unfortunately, Imaginary Cities takes a different approach. Anderson writes in an epigrammatic style that moves (too) quickly from point to point while tossing out unattributed references to high and low culture. It feels like Anderson is trying to disguise his jejune observations with a thicket of allusions and lit-crit theory to make them seem profound.
"Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!" wrote François Villon, the finest poet ever to have killed a priest in a knife fight...
The control of space and those within it is crucial to dystopias. The manual for tyranny is essentially a guide to the manipulation of architecture.A disappointing start to 2018. On the plus side, I did learn about the existence of hoboglyphs.
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