Today's post is bit different from what I have been posting lately. The purpose of this post is to leave a note on places I was interested by reading this book, which hopefully I can visit one day. The last chapter of the book is about "utopia". It discusses how the notion of utopia has _not_ changed over time ever since the time of Greece and how it can be characterize by this and that. The first characteristic I was interested by is how lights are homogeneously arranged in utopian society. The book describes that such homogeneous arrangement of light does not create any kind of contrast that is provided by shadow, like found in fluorescent light. The opposite, meaning having contrast, is those that can be found in light bulb. The book interprets such homogeneous manner of light in utopian society as below, which reminds me of what Foucault was discussing. トーマス・モアの"ユートピア"には照明のことは書かれていなかったと思うけれども、生活には闇の部分がなく、隅々までも監視が行き届いているという意味では、大体の古今のユートピアはどれも基本的にいわゆる明るい社会なんです With the above being said, the books says that people of Paris once gone against such use of light. パリ・コミューンという1871年の革命のときに...民衆が闇をかえせと叫んで、パリの街灯をひとつひとつ壊して歩いたという And the city I want to visit is Prague as the book says its one of the city in Europe which contrast created by light is beautiful. 点々とオレンジ色のオレンジ色の街灯のならんでいるヨーロッパの町で、もっとも街灯の美しい町のひとつとしてプラハを挙げるならば、そこでは光と影がじつにみごとな起伏にとんだ空間を作り出している。歩くと自分の影がいっしょに動いてゆく Another characteristic that I found interesting in utopian society is its preference over linear arrangement of a city. Its interesting how those linearity found in Greece can be interpreted as "Rationale" ... たとえばアテネはずいぶん奇妙な町です...規則性と反復性の傑作といっていいパルテノン神殿が立っている...あの植谷雄高でさえ、パルテノン神殿に地中海の理性を感じたと記憶します ... and how its different from those linearity found in Pyramid in Egypt and other places. もちろん直交性を持った都市は以前からありました...たとえばエジプトのルクソールに行くと、神殿そのものが直線的ですから、まわりの道もほぼ直線になっていいます...ミレトスの直線は神によって与えられた直線ではなく、人間の(合理的)直線なんです And lastly, the book mentions how the linearity can be interpreted in a context of Orientalism considering "Rationale" as a Western representation. One such example the book gives is the city of Miletus in Turkey, considering how Miletus was neighboring "Asia" back when there was a Persian Empire. The book draws a contrast between Europe and Asia by considering the "Rational" as Western, against "Asia" described as below. そのころにプラトンが登場したんですね。彼には守るべきものがあったわけです。それは、ギリシアが既に高度に推しすすめていた理性というものです...それを象徴する幾何学的に構成された都市...ミレトスに...アジアが侵入してくるのが怖かったんですね。ここで言うアジアというのは、広いアジア的なものです...規則性、反復性がない...エキゾティックで...得体の知れない魅力的なもの Maybe I should read this book in regards. Also, back to how lights are arranged in utopian society, its interesting how Asian cities are getting more utopian today where it was "Asia" that represented the very opposite. Its interesting by how those nature found in the listed cities are still able to be seen in the very society that I live today. And if I were to consider "today" as a point in a history as just like those society once used to be, I see something within those cities that I can associated to myself. Its interesting that the very nature seems to stay the same over time, in fact I can still see them in The Hunger Game haha. The books also shares how those terms like Fantastic, Féerique and etc differs each other. I wonder which term is appropriate for describing Midnight in Paris. Maybe Fantastic? Please let me know if you can tell, because I can't yet😂. That's it for today's post. I hope I can write a post like this more often. See you in the next! --- Diary --- I went to Hakone today and it was such a great trip. Just wanted to keep a note so that I can remember haha.