New York, Calcutta
Via Prufrock’s Page, this article by Amit Chaudhuri in the New Statesman about how he prefers the New York of the late seventies to the gentrified city of today.
What exactly is "gentrification"? Certainly it has to do with the acquisition of wealth, with the enhancement of property prices. But it is more than these things; it is a style of living and an attitude to history. Cities, when they revive after a slump, find ways of rewriting, and even denying, history. It is almost an inevitable process.
Btw, Chaudhuri’s to-be-published memoir (hmm, his novels all felt like memoirs) is called "Monsoon Raag".
My god - “Monsoon Raag”?
So “Spices”, “Maharaja”, “Maharani”, “Tiger”, “Karma”, “Kali” and “Ganesha” were all taken?
Comment by km — July 21, 2006 @ 5:53 pm
So “Spices�, “Maharaja�, “Maharani�, “Tiger�, “Karma�, “Kali� and “Ganesha� were all taken?
And so was “Afternoon Raag” :)
Comment by uma — July 21, 2006 @ 5:57 pm