Paragraph selected from “Invisible City”
IN ERSILIA, TO establish the relationships that sustain the city’s life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.
From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersilia’s refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.
They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away.
Thus, when traveling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of the abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spider-webs of intricate relationships seeking a form.
Methods selected from “Exercises in style”
Method：Surprise Tone
Did you know that in Elsiria, to establish the relationships that sustain the city’s life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses! It’s the white, black, grey or black-and-white! It actually depended on blood, trade, power and agency! You know when those ropes become so numerous! You can’t pass among them! The inhabitants will leave! The houses are dismantled! Only the strings and their supports remain!
Essilia’s refugees would camp from a mountainside with their household goods! They looked out over the plains at the taut strings and poles that rise in the plain! They went so far as to form a labyrinth! That is the city of Ersilia still! And they are nothing!
They will rebuild Ersilia elsewhere! They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex than the other! And at the same time more regular than the other! Then! They abandon it! And take themselves and their houses still farther away!
Thus! When traveling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of the abandoned cities! Without the walls which do not last!Without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spider-webs of intricate relationships seeking a form!
Method：Retrograde Tone
If you are travelling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spider-webs of intricate relationships seeking a form. The spider-webs are composed of strings in complex and also more regular than the other and they are white, black, grey or black-and-white.
These strings are the way in which the inhabitants of Elsiria establish the relationships that sustain life in the city, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses.
The strings according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.
Ersilia’s refugees abandoned it, taking themselves and their houses still farther away. From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersilia’s refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.