Loading ...John Hodgman (of Daily Show fame) recently wrote a book called The Areas of My Expertise which features a section called “Four Dubious Fables of Chicago” in which he asserts that Chicago is the “…Atlantis of the Midwest[ern United States],” and is every bit as fictitious as the mythical island of classical Greece. While I’m having a bit of trouble believing him, as I’ve had an address here for almost seven years now, he did make a very interesting point in a recent interview by a Chicago based reporter:
“My whole book is about how stories become so much more powerful than facts, which is unfortunately something we see in the political scene today. But I think it’s a universal condition. I think most fiction was designed originally to provoke social cohesion and instruct history. That’s what urban legends are–and what is Chicago, if not a very comforting urban legend? A fantasy world, if you will, of gangsters and Italian beef sandwiches and two–not just one–but two baseball teams competing with each other all the time, and streets paved with gold where lobsters walk, or whatever. It’s like an El Dorado of North America.”
I mean, really, what is any place but a well crafted mythos? I could describe the city to you but it’s really nothing when compared to the impression that you might take away with you after a visit or some pre-conceived notion that might have been impressed upon you by the nightly news. For exampel, I keep hearing about this place called “London” with its queen, its fish and chips and its poor dental hygiene but all I remember is Mogogo’s older brother’s driving, a really great Persian restaurant, the Russian embassy, and a really, really long wait in Victoria’s Station.
So, where does that leave me? I’m not so sure.
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Great opening piece, Eric. But how did you subvert the standard font?!