Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers
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A revolutionary reimagining of the cities we live in, the air above us, and what goes on in the earth beneath our feet Today we live in a world that can no longer be read as a two-dimensional map, but must now be understood as a series of vertical strata that reach from the satellites that encircle our planet to the tunnels deep within the ground. In Vertical, Stephen Graham rewrites the city at every level: how the geography of inequality, politics, and identity is determined in terms of above and below. Starting at the edge of earth’s atmosphere and, in a series of riveting studies, descending through each layer, Graham explores the world of drones, the city from the viewpoint of an aerial bomber, the design of sidewalks and the hidden depths of underground bunkers. He asks: why was Dubai built to be seen from Google Earth? How do the super-rich in São Paulo live in their penthouses far above the street? Why do London billionaires build vast subterranean basements? And how do the technology of elevators and subversive urban explorers shape life on the surface and subsurface of the earth? Vertical will make you look at the world around you anew: this is a revolution in understanding your place in the world.
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Could've used better editing. A typo on every other page, it seemed.
Also, adverbs/adjectives to cut down on:
radical/ly - way overused, in most cases could've been cut out altogethercolonize/ation - “she's sitting on the bench” becomes “the bench is colonized by her”
*neoliberal/ism - really, even in context I still don't know what it means other than it's a current bogeyman word and so i just replace it with ‘bad stuff' in my head. or, i guess it's just a new way to say ‘capitalism'? i recall some quote by some dude being described in a neoliberal context with a footnote that stated he was part of a neoconservative think-tank. well, i'm not opposed to the word existing but it (along with these other words) seems to have just been peppered in gratuitously.
I mean, I like pepper...but even I know when my mashed potatoes have had enough.
THAT SAID.
I like the concept of exploring the use of space going from Space->Subterranean Earth. It was illuminating, if mostly unsurprising (we build up at the expense of the environment/working class/poor, we build down at the expense of the environment/working class/poor). The verbiage/jargon just started to annoy me after a while.
Also, I like that my area got a paragraph devoted to it.