Dead Cities {ReadingNotes}

Dead Cities by Mike Davis - ISBN 9781565848443 - New Press 2002

Motivation

Recommended by Audrey after enjoying her previous recommendation on a similar topic L Architecture De Survie.

Pre-reading model

Draw a schema (using PmGraphViz or another solution) of the situation of the area in the studied domain before having read the book.

Reading

• Preface: The Flames of New York
• Part I Neon West
• Part II Holy Ghosts
• Part III Riot City
  • "Meme si on imagine les villes comme des <<parcours fleches>> assorties d'une myriade de sondes permettant de detecter et de contrer l'erosion, les interfaces fondamentales avec la nature - l'etat du parc de logements, celui des conduits dl'alimentation en eau et d'evacuation des dechets, le controle des especes cmmensales porteuses de maladie (rats ou mouches), etc. - apparaissent toujours en desequilibre." (p75 of the french translation)
  • "Jefferies prit un plaisir non dissimule a rappeler a ses lecteurs que seule <<une pellicule de verre, fragile, fine et transparente>> separait la civilisation de l'etat sauvage: un detail souligne par l'imagine recurrente d'un iceberg flottant dans la Tamise." (p84 of the french translation)
    • cf Ergo Proxy but overall a lot of anime and manga with domed cities
• Part IV Extreme Science

See also

• Review of Dead Cities and Other Tales by David S. Hirschman, Next American City 2003
• Wikipedia:Mike Davis (scholar)
• Wikipedia:Origin: Spirits of the Past
• Seedea:Oimp/EcoSpores
• Global Footprint Network international think tank working to advance sustainability through use of the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what.
  • mention of footprint-network.org regarding the expansion and requirements of Tokyo
  • Footprint for Cities
• Review by Bénédicte Tratnjek, October 2010

Overall remarks and questions

• having a hard time understand its structure
  • no introduction
  • seems to be a series of independent essays but even in each essay the paragraph are very lousily connected
• the french translation has a table of content with a different order

Synthesis

So in the end, it was about X and was based on Y.

Critics

Point A, B and C are debatable because of e, f and j.

Vocabulary

(:new_vocabulary_start:) new_word (:new_vocabulary_end:)

Post-reading model

Draw a schema (using PmGraphViz or another solution) of the situation of the area in the studied domain after having read the book. Link it to the pre-reading model and align the two to help easy comparison.

Categories

• UncategorizedBook

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