I am in the midst of writing an exam essay, and I thought about putting this as the concluding paragraph and remarks. However, I felt it had a bit more potential than to be consigned to the end of a paper and then lost to oblivion. So I tweaked it a little bit, turning it into more of a creative-writing piece. This is a significant moment for me; I have forged a link between criticism and creativity. I have proved to myself that such a feat can be done, even if not well. I will wrise again.
‘The power of the city lies in the fact that it disconcerts you. You can try to master it, and for a time, you might succeed. Although you should never, ever forget that it has the ultimate control. Its an ever-shifting, ever-moving buzz. Oh, laddie, it is not safe at all. The only safety it affords is the anonymity, of getting lost in the crowds. The city is the important thing, the powerful thing. And you are living in a postmodern city. Postmodernism means refuting Lyotard’s ‘grand narrative’ theory, it means disruption and change and being unanchored. Cutting yourself off. From agriculture, from family, from friends – even though we play with a superimposed structure on our friends via the city, these little closes and alleys running into each other, like a game of cat-and-mouse. Only, you don't know that you're not the cat, or even the mouse. It means confusion, it means Edinburgh.’
INCROYABLEEE
ReplyDeleteCool, I like it. Being a city-dweller myself, I well understand the things one can't control. I also like to play contrarian, and so add this: sometimes I actually feel as though living in the city gives me, the dweller, the ultimate control. I ignore entire swathes of the city, and I find myself returning time and again to certain places or neighborhoods because something that interests me draws me there. Or sometimes it is purely my routine (also of my own choosing) that drives me through certain well-traveled routes and hides others from my view. The city I actually experience and inhabit is a city of my own choice and making. Has that also been your experience in Edinburgh? Or perhaps it is purely a New York experience, as its tremendous size allows for it. Love, K
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