What if the Nazis had conquered New York in Word War 2? Melissa Gould does a mental/geographical experiment in which everything is renamed to resemble Berlin.
In this ironic linking of the two cities I know most intimately I am proposing a city in which I would not, in fact, be allowed to exist. Yet NEU-YORK is paradoxically an homage to the German language — my father’s mother tongue which I also speak fluently — and the poetic aspects of the German culture, the very same culture that German and Austrian Jews rightfully identified as their own, and which might have been mine to embrace had the historical continuum not been broken.
It is rather brilliantly done, with all the ancient fonts and washed-out colours, but personally, I am really and truly creeped out by this sinister vision (it’s even got a “Hohenschönhausen” subway station! Creepissimo!) It’s probably the same gut reaction that has kept be from reading Robert Harris’ Fatherland.
Found (of course) at Strange Maps.
I just had the same item in my feedreader… creepy, but fascinating. (I’ve been following Strange Maps ever since I saw them in one of your previous blog entries. I like maps a lot.)
Fatherland: A good read, though, and food for thought.
Comment by Herr Rau — January 10, 2008 @ 6:18 pm |
A Strange Maps day is always a happy day, isn’t it? So you think I should read Fatherland? I’ve been on a regular Harris binge lately (though I think his Roman novels are by far the best of the lot), but the creepiness of Fatherland’s premise has put me off so far.
Comment by mrs. h. — January 10, 2008 @ 6:24 pm |
Fatherland is the only book by Harris that I’ve read, so I can’t compare it to any of his others. It’s not only a book set in a Europe where Hitler won, but a good murder mystery. But the murder mystery then turns into an investigation of history. Really quite good.
Comment by Herr Rau — January 10, 2008 @ 11:12 pm |
You mean you haven’t read Imperium? Get thee to a bookshop at once!
http://neverenoughhomework.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/robert-harris-imperium/
Comment by mrs. h. — January 11, 2008 @ 7:54 am |
I put it on my wishlist. Id did enjoy “I Claudius”, that is, the tv series. Never read the books.
Comment by Herr Rau — January 12, 2008 @ 10:54 am |