Policies and pandemics have changed how we imagine cities

Humanity has migrated to underwater cubes to escape the deadly effects of the highly damaged ozone layer. The tremendous advances in solar energy have made this change possible, and the subclass of androids provides maintenance. Sensitive but devoid of rights, they are manufactured with organs that can be assembled by humans. Gradually, Momo sheds light on the oppression of the androids, linking the points between an operation performed as a child and the disappearance of his best childhood friend.

There is a tremendous amount going on in this short work: new religions are emerging in this world of the future, Pacific territories are divided between countries like the United States and corporations like Toyota, and then there are special skin treatment treatments at Momo Salon. The reason for this horrible book is Momo’s dependence on digital media. He spends hours on bulletin board systems and in Gopher’s early search engine, he loves laser discs and has pores over “disco” and “disco”.

The charming old-fashioned digital layers of the book are explained in real-world events that inspired the reader to Chi. While the English translation is new, Membranes It was first published in 1995, a few years later the law of struggle in Taiwan he rose. He transformed culture “with a sudden flood of new ideas, combined with a sufficient lack of regulatory oversight over an entire generation of young people,” as translator Ari Larissa Heinrich explains in the background. Chi was part of this generation, he had just launched bootleg tapes and suddenly experienced international films, surfed the net and enjoyed the media and technology. The disorienting exuberance of this era is captured in the book’s frenetic spirit: the wild future of T City was the image of the Taiwanese funhouse mirror that Chi experienced.

Membranes shows that even if the population gathers for a city on the ocean floor, its communities will continue to make history from a common past. This was the concern of NK Jemisin while he was working in 2020 We became the city. The book is set in New York City, where the author lives, but, in the acknowledgments, he writes that “they combined more research than any other fantasy novel I’ve ever written.” Jemisin wanted not only to capture the infrastructure and landmarks in detail, but the New Yorkers themselves. “The real world has real people,” he wrote. “That’s why it’s important not to respect or represent them in ways that cause harm.”

We became the city it found a wide and enthusiastic audience when it was released last year in the early days of the pandemic. It features superhero-like characters who act as avatars in five neighborhoods in New York City, sponsors and location corpses. They fight with entities that are reminiscent of HP Lovecraft’s monsters, tents and “fronds” that are manifestations of the threats that New Yorkers face: gentrification, racism, police. Jemisin’s research and care bore fruit; the book had a relationship with the readers as their lives changed radically. In the midst of the crisis in 19 cities for people who experienced another test of the city’s resilience, the characters were real.

One of the ways in which science fiction authors have avoided research like Jemisin is to present well-known empty cities in addition to living Biscayans. I am a legend, A 1954 post-apocalyptic classic by Richard Matheson, set in Los Angeles, recognizable by its geography and street names, but a pandemic has mutated its people — except for one man — into a vampire who lives in the shadows.

The novel, with a tremendous impact on the terrifying zombie fear, focuses on the anxiety of the Atomic Age by depicting the desolate neighborhoods that were once neighbors. The last man on earth, Robert Neville, rarely leaves his house fortified. Instead, he lives a comfortable life, listening to piano concerts and drinking alone. There is no coordinated response to disasters in the novel. It does not need to be provided in collaboration or negotiation with neighbors.

When you start experimenting with vampires to find out the origin of the disease, I am a legend raises a question: Is Richard the real monster of this new society? It’s suspenseful and deservedly considered a classic, but Matheson doesn’t offer a real sense of place. Other people have been stripped of history and are small blood-thirsty mutants; their motivations and interests are predictable and the culture of the city has nothing to do with it.

Decades earlier, the polite WEB Du Bois was rare to write fiction to show how the social hierarchies of a city can sustain its people. The 1920 story “The Comet”, written in the wake of the flu pandemic, depicts an event that took place in New York. A black man is still alive, and for the first time in his life, he can visit a restaurant on Fifth Avenue without worrying. Jim fills his plate in the empty building, thinking “They didn’t serve me yesterday.” City of Los Angeles I am a legend it could be anywhere, but New York is clearly New York in the movie “The Comet”. In this regard, Du Boise explains what life was like before the restaurant on Fifth Avenue was abandoned. As Jim continues the journey, he gets in touch with some of his surviving friends and finds out racism did not die when the event occurred“And, in fact, it will last until the end of the world.”