Today’s podcast is part of a series to accompany my current serialized novel, An Interpreter in Vienna, as we investigate the truth in fiction. You can also listen to the podcast via Apple or Spotify or in the Substack app. As always, feel free to share any of your work related to the conversation. Thank you!
https://thematterhorn.substack.com/
A full AI-created transcript can be accessed on the desktop version.
Keywords:
* City as text
* Layers of the city
* The urban everyday
* Vienna, complicated history
* Vienna, iconic places
* Vienna, utopia and reality
* Architectural Uncanny and the Ghostly City
* Cities as reflections of their literature and culture
Considerations for your work:
* Reflect on choices to include pastoral or urban settings in your fiction. What unique elements does the city environment offer?
* How can you develop and play with the layers of the city in your fiction? Whether a real or imagined urban place, how do the literary, cultural, and historic layers shape the experience of your characters?
* What further understanding of a city does the concept of the Architectural Uncanny and Ghostly City develop in your fiction? How might literary responses that are modern or postmodern emphasize these aspects?
* Feel free to share your related work or recommendations in the comments.
Texts:
* The City as Text (on The Matterhorn)
* The Culture of Everyday Life (on The Matterhorn)
* To Walk Alone in the Crowd – Antonio Muñoz Molina
* The Layers of the City – Antoni Jach
* The Arcades Project — Walter Benjamin
* Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
* Vienna’s Haunting Third Man Theme (NYT)
* A View on Cities: Vienna’s Ring Road
* Vienna - world’s most livable city (Euronews / Smithsonian)
* Vienna’s ‘gay pedestrian lights’
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