The Vanishing Map: A Journey from LA to Tokyo to the Heart of Europe

Dr Stephen Barber

The Vanishing Map: A Journey from LA to Tokyo to the Heart of Europe
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Country
United Kingdom
Published
1 August 2006
Pages
160
ISBN
9781845205102

The Vanishing Map: A Journey from LA to Tokyo to the Heart of Europe

Dr Stephen Barber

Stephen Barber takes the reader on an extraordinary journey from LA to Tokyo via Europe. He carries only a crumpled map in his pocket, a map that plots a horrifying past, a disappearing present and a future collapsing into banality. A virtual reality flight across this territory reveals the surfaces of things, a landscape made by war and technological advances. Coming back to earth and to his own body, Stephen Barber follows the map from city to city. He discovers how cities, once densely layered with a civilization’s history of follies and obsessions, are increasingly oblivious places, accelerating the erasure of their own histories, forgetting themselves. Barber’s journey becomes a profound meditation on the future of the city and the role of memory in our lives.Dazzlingly written, erudite and, by turns funny, elegiac and horrific, The Vanishing Map explores what cities were, are and will be. Deeper than this, it questions how memory - personal, urban, national and global memory - can survive.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 2 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.