Making the Most of Hell on Earth

[peadarog]

Two Cities, Venice and Neverness: one real and one the setting of David Zindell's magnificent series, A Requiem For Homo Sapiens. What do they have in common? Both should have been hell-holes. A swamp, a frozen wasteland. But instead their inhabitants built homes that had more in common with poetry than cities.

Comments

[uberneedle]

Neverness is one of my favourite imaginary cities :)

[peadarog]

I would absolutely love to visit it someday... Venice is cool too, of course :-)

[bondo_ba]

Totally true. Some of the better scenes out there are those in which a character is doing something delightful while the world around them is full of awfulness.

Converssely, a nice little Pollyana utopia is always made better by something sordid behind closed doors...

[peadarog]

Yes, I love it when Polyanna cries. Love it!

[eldritchhobbit]

Looks like I need to add some more titles to my "must read" pile!

[peadarog]

Oh, Neverness is great!

[marshallpayne1]

I've been thinking for a couple of hours what to say here, Peadar. I read Neverness when it first came out. So all I can say is Great book! :-)

[peadarog]

Exactomundo. Nothing else needs to be said and there's never(ness) an obligation to say anything. We relax and enjoy.

[marshallpayne1]

Well, I haven't chimed in here in a while and I didn't want you to think I wasn't reading. Sometimes even I'm at a loss for words. *g*

[peadarog]

:-)

[fenryng]

Am I understanding you to be saying that, regardless of how bleak the rest of the world is, there should be at least one city that says, screw it, we are going to be shiny and sparkly and full of yuletide cheer year round?

[peadarog]

Nah, there should be one orphan on one street on one city with an ice-cream :)