WHY?
I'm going to have to read The Green North a second time before I post something, because I finished it, and I don't remember a page -- or a paragraph, or a line -- where he says why. Why do we have to build cities in the Green North? I understand that it won't be as awful as straw men might imagine -- greenhouses, telephones, regional theatre, warm clothes, Siberia does it -- but why?
I must have missed that part. So I'm going back.
I think it has something to do with wanting a little privacy and an escape from "stricter bylaws, statues, regulations and rules" (p. 21) That and an affordable cottage.
ReplyDeleteI think it's supposed to also appeal to German tourists - though that might be my thought, not Rohmer's.
Um, that's statutes, not statues.
DeleteI keep thinking about a magazine interview with Madonna a thousand years ago, where she'd just gotten her nose pierced, and she was explaining that it wasn't as much trouble to maintain as you might think. Except that it scabbed up. And closed up. And felt weird. And hurt. And got gross when she had a cold... And what I thought was: You know what's even less trouble? Not getting your nose pierced.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Why go live on the permafrost?
Answer: Because it's not as difficult as you'd think.