City
Civilization, cities, are a good idea. Human natural habitat. Of course, when they get too large, they become a black hole, sucking in the surrounding countryside and destroying both. But the idea, of gathering all our ideas together, mixing it all up, mashing us all together, works. Not pleasantly, not easily, often loudly and uncomfortably, but that jostle and thrum throws up all our best solutions and ideas. And food.
Talking with one of the residents about what rural Utah is like, he says it sounds just like the rural South, and that perhaps all such areas are alike. Insular, resistant to change, and not to put to fine a point here, dumb. "Conservative" meaning backward and willfully ignorant. Mean, bigoted and smug. NOT everyone, it's all a matter of concentrations, but the majority that sets the tone, and the rules. Big places, with lots of interactions, weed out those who want a small, neat little world where they can make others do what they want. Not that large, corrupt police forces and political machines don't try mightily, but they know they have to hide those manipulative tendencies under the guise of Service and Protection and Embracing Divertingly.... um Diversity.
Which is why, in the reality imagined for my fiction (long neglected), the City, is the online community. Physically, the city is the whole of a remnant of the human species who protected and salvaged the idea of Technology, as well as the means of production. But they live in small chains of towns, indistinguishable from farmland and orchard and ranches. All connected intellectually and creatively, with every other human on the planet. Raised one place, most people will get their higher education in another part of the world, raise children another area yet, and age someplace else, all the while staying in the same, diverse, city of ideas through the network.
We ate at a new Asian fusion restaurant (Rice) today. Thai curry with tamarind, with potatoes cooked to that razor edge between being still hard, and being mushy. I've never had anything quite like it, and it took me a while to definitely decide how I felt about it. A step outside my comfort zone.
We would all do better standing out there, every day. Just a step or two, just for a few moments, every day. Bravely. Curious and... tasting.
Talking with one of the residents about what rural Utah is like, he says it sounds just like the rural South, and that perhaps all such areas are alike. Insular, resistant to change, and not to put to fine a point here, dumb. "Conservative" meaning backward and willfully ignorant. Mean, bigoted and smug. NOT everyone, it's all a matter of concentrations, but the majority that sets the tone, and the rules. Big places, with lots of interactions, weed out those who want a small, neat little world where they can make others do what they want. Not that large, corrupt police forces and political machines don't try mightily, but they know they have to hide those manipulative tendencies under the guise of Service and Protection and Embracing Divertingly.... um Diversity.
Which is why, in the reality imagined for my fiction (long neglected), the City, is the online community. Physically, the city is the whole of a remnant of the human species who protected and salvaged the idea of Technology, as well as the means of production. But they live in small chains of towns, indistinguishable from farmland and orchard and ranches. All connected intellectually and creatively, with every other human on the planet. Raised one place, most people will get their higher education in another part of the world, raise children another area yet, and age someplace else, all the while staying in the same, diverse, city of ideas through the network.
We ate at a new Asian fusion restaurant (Rice) today. Thai curry with tamarind, with potatoes cooked to that razor edge between being still hard, and being mushy. I've never had anything quite like it, and it took me a while to definitely decide how I felt about it. A step outside my comfort zone.
We would all do better standing out there, every day. Just a step or two, just for a few moments, every day. Bravely. Curious and... tasting.
Labels: fiction
Posted by Zhoen on Saturday, August 29, 2009
4 comments:
When I visited Seattle, years ago, I was enheartened by its distinctive communities that all seemed to flow together without losing any of their uniqueness. I visited an Asian supemarket there and could have spent hours browsing through the aisles, exploring the cultures represented there through their foods.
My town is slowly changing from one of rural exclusion to grudging diversity. I'd like the tempo to pick up a little.
Of course, I could always move to Seattle.
:)
I had a surreal run-in with Conservative last Sunday at the dentist's office. A somewhat frantically friendly hygienist very casually inserted some of the most bigoted things I've heard in person, and had no idea how offensive she was being. I was speechless, and would have been so even without various instruments in my mouth. There was more, and the whole episode made for hilarious, if horrified, retelling later. I'll either write or tell you about it.
The woman is certainly living in the wrong place, if she's so offended by Hispanics and gays that she can't avoid expressing her disgust in even the most casual, one-sided of conversations.
[o]
(Not a stone, but a brick, for building your City.)
The stolidity of the countryside means that it's not often violent and aggressive in its bigotry and backwardness, as the city can be, mobs and riots and violent crime are rarer perhaps, but yes, I really think perhaps the backwoods are poitentially pretty much the sme like that all over the world.
I like the space, always liked the peace and quiet, but I miss all the things you say about the city.
Post a Comment
<< Home