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ederwin's review
3.0
Dystopias aren't just for SciFi. The rich get richer. The poor get hassled. But you knew that, didn't you?
I picked this up because it has an essay by [a:China Miéville|33918|China Miéville|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1243988363p2/33918.jpg] about various peoples plans for floating utopian cities free from the laws of the land. I thought he'd have particularly interesting things to say because he has an interesting floating pirate city in [b:The Scar|68497|The Scar (New Crobuzon, #2)|China Miéville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320435192s/68497.jpg|731674]. But I didn't find his essay very enlightening.
Many of these essays are about various ways that the rich or elite segregate themselves into clean and shiny enclaves while the poor and other undesirables are left out. It isn't just private gated communities. Many world cities that are supposedly for everyone are built with the needs of the rich put above everyone else. Many interesting examples, but most of the essays are pretty dry.
I want to think of these practices as evil. But visiting the big city last night on the subway I, myself, can't help but think "I wish I didn't have to see that, and I wish that person weren't sitting so close, and I wish I didn't have to put up with that noise." We are all complicit.
This was published before the 2008 stock market crash. It would be interesting to see what happened afterwards in some of these places.
I picked this up because it has an essay by [a:China Miéville|33918|China Miéville|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1243988363p2/33918.jpg] about various peoples plans for floating utopian cities free from the laws of the land. I thought he'd have particularly interesting things to say because he has an interesting floating pirate city in [b:The Scar|68497|The Scar (New Crobuzon, #2)|China Miéville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320435192s/68497.jpg|731674]. But I didn't find his essay very enlightening.
Many of these essays are about various ways that the rich or elite segregate themselves into clean and shiny enclaves while the poor and other undesirables are left out. It isn't just private gated communities. Many world cities that are supposedly for everyone are built with the needs of the rich put above everyone else. Many interesting examples, but most of the essays are pretty dry.
I want to think of these practices as evil. But visiting the big city last night on the subway I, myself, can't help but think "I wish I didn't have to see that, and I wish that person weren't sitting so close, and I wish I didn't have to put up with that noise." We are all complicit.
This was published before the 2008 stock market crash. It would be interesting to see what happened afterwards in some of these places.
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