The book people tell you to read about Chicago is Nature's Metropolis by William Cronon.
Inner America's defined by the water transport system that goes in through the St. Lawrence past Montreal, connects to the Great Lakes with all their cities, crosses to the Mississippi at Chicago (first a portage, now a canal) and comes out at New Orleans. Always found this for whatever reason to be a compelling bit of world-building. Like you have the East Coast which is its own thing, California which again is separate and the inland canal zone which is "America". Mysteries of this region include the Wendigo, Iroquois mourning wars, French Canadian Jesuits, Chicago's world fairs, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Memphis' Beale Street, Cahokia and St. Louis' Veiled Prophet Ball.
I have a recurring fantasy where Vikings discover this in 999, introduce the Native Americans to manageable quantities of smallpox, found Norse skraeling Cahokian empire. Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz should be about this but unfortunately isn't I don't think.
This is the writing I live for. America sounds like walking into a perfectly ordinary looking bookshop to find it selling primarily christian themed self-help smut.
So “The Artist” is Amanda right? We getting a Patrick/Amanda collab at some point?
Not to go full parasocial but I’m really glad y’all are friends (or seem to be from the little traces that imprint online).
Anyway, about the actual article: I was struck by how slanted towards visuals your review was. As an American who has spent a fair bit of time in our biggest cities (including Chi Town), I always find them to be an assault on all the senses. They smell. They have a sound. They have a taste. They evoke memory.
Maybe it’s just a Patrick writing quality but in this one it was all visuals and what they evoke in memory. Not one comment about Chicago food!
Maybe that’s part of what I like about your writing though. You often feed the metaphysical senses, commenting on how something or someplace stimulates a sense of time, of order, of presence/absence, and of being in conversation with the broader world.
I suppose I prefer that to telling me pizza tastes good and public transport smells funny.
Now I have a whole list of US cities I wish you’d review…
I’d back a Kickstarter that is explicitly to fund you taking a trip across the US to produce a coffee table book of American City Reviews + some photography.
I suppose we’ve technically had a Patrick/Amanda collab with her piece in “Speak, False Machine” (which was excellent), but come on man, just pull a Chris McDowall and put out a little wargame as an excuse to commission some more Amanda art.
Call it Snail Knights or something and claim it’s the first wargame that is explicitly a teaser for a novel series.
The book people tell you to read about Chicago is Nature's Metropolis by William Cronon.
Inner America's defined by the water transport system that goes in through the St. Lawrence past Montreal, connects to the Great Lakes with all their cities, crosses to the Mississippi at Chicago (first a portage, now a canal) and comes out at New Orleans. Always found this for whatever reason to be a compelling bit of world-building. Like you have the East Coast which is its own thing, California which again is separate and the inland canal zone which is "America". Mysteries of this region include the Wendigo, Iroquois mourning wars, French Canadian Jesuits, Chicago's world fairs, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Memphis' Beale Street, Cahokia and St. Louis' Veiled Prophet Ball.
I have a recurring fantasy where Vikings discover this in 999, introduce the Native Americans to manageable quantities of smallpox, found Norse skraeling Cahokian empire. Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz should be about this but unfortunately isn't I don't think.
This is the writing I live for. America sounds like walking into a perfectly ordinary looking bookshop to find it selling primarily christian themed self-help smut.
So “The Artist” is Amanda right? We getting a Patrick/Amanda collab at some point?
Not to go full parasocial but I’m really glad y’all are friends (or seem to be from the little traces that imprint online).
Anyway, about the actual article: I was struck by how slanted towards visuals your review was. As an American who has spent a fair bit of time in our biggest cities (including Chi Town), I always find them to be an assault on all the senses. They smell. They have a sound. They have a taste. They evoke memory.
Maybe it’s just a Patrick writing quality but in this one it was all visuals and what they evoke in memory. Not one comment about Chicago food!
Maybe that’s part of what I like about your writing though. You often feed the metaphysical senses, commenting on how something or someplace stimulates a sense of time, of order, of presence/absence, and of being in conversation with the broader world.
I suppose I prefer that to telling me pizza tastes good and public transport smells funny.
Now I have a whole list of US cities I wish you’d review…
I’d back a Kickstarter that is explicitly to fund you taking a trip across the US to produce a coffee table book of American City Reviews + some photography.
I suppose we’ve technically had a Patrick/Amanda collab with her piece in “Speak, False Machine” (which was excellent), but come on man, just pull a Chris McDowall and put out a little wargame as an excuse to commission some more Amanda art.
Call it Snail Knights or something and claim it’s the first wargame that is explicitly a teaser for a novel series.
A little sloppy on the subtitle, I know it's meant to say "five out of five". Other than that, a fine review of a city I love.
Every so often Patrick reminds us that he's a writer first and a game guy second. This is stellar.