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Michelle Legro
Every City Has a Sex and an Age
Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and in this hasn’t changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman. —John Berger, 1987
Yesterday we asked our readers on the LQ Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter to reimagine the John Berger quote above for their own city. About halfway through the day, @walrusmagazine and The Atlantic tumblr jumped on board, providing us with hundreds of city definitions for towns large and small from every corner of North America, all gathered under the hashtag #mycityis. Here are some of our favorites, and feel free to add your own in the comments.
Cincinnati is an unemployed Mark Twain impersonator. (@amyhordes)
Minneapolis is a twenty-something Lutheran nerd on a bike. (Tom Flynn)
San Francisco is a wiry guy in his late thirties who may or may not have had a drug problem. (Heather Donahue)
Syracuse is a dead man in an open casket at a funeral no one attends. (Steven Featherstone)
Jacksonville, Florida is a failed politician in his seventies, elected once to a minor state office, who now everyday is annihilated by the regret he feels at not leaving for Costa Rica when he had the chance. (Christian Henderson)
Arcata, CA is a late-50's unemployed commercial fisherman whose making a go of it farming marijuana. (Mike Sprecher)
Irvine, CA is a 38 year old woman telling you she's 30 and everything's "natural. (@NateWolfson)
Calgary is an oil CEO who secretly perfoms burlesque. Quite talented. (@msimoens)
Edmonton is a wealthy, middle-aged housewife whose sole ambition is to fit back into her prom dress. (@sarahevekelly)
Halifax is the hot cousin you secretly have a crush on but won't tell anyone because that's weird. (@SeanDMcMullen)
New York is the popular kid that no one wants to tell about the mustard on his shirt. (@jacobpstein)
Toronto is a very short young man who wears a bow tie, holds his cig upright, & never belly laughs, only chuckles. (@alexmolotkow)
Montreal is an old prostitute still managing to make a living by selling pictures of what she once was. (@scrypticwriter)
Oklahoma City is a 50 year old middle-manager devouring self-help books in his den while it's a beautiful day outside. (@sans_saraf)
Pawucket, RI is an old timey lunchbox, like the ones carried up by Empire State Building construction workers. (@bindery)
Portland is your younger sister, always scribbling and sighing and pining. (@kellymce)
St. Louis is a twenty-something guy who likes to tell you all about the great times he had last night at that club you couldn’t get into. (Mark Coatney)
Washington, DC is a driven young political consultant who, despite the exhausting pace of his work, still makes time for art openings, smooth jazz, and light blogging. (theatlantic)
East Lansing, Michigan, is a transgendered octogenarian eating Chef Boyardee ravioli straight out of the can. (@misterhippity)
Oakland, CA is a fortysomething yoga mom secure in the knowledge that raising chickens is the true path to equanimity. (@cmonstah)
September 17, 2010
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Comments Post a Comment »
San Antonio, TX is a young thirty-something who has embraced his multi-racial ethnicity, and wondering why his neighbors along the border haven't as well.
Posted by Donovan Becker on Fri 17 Sep 2010
Hartford - the Lost City between Boston & New York
Posted by phil on Fri 17 Sep 2010
Memphis is a forty-five year old woman who is comforted by the belief that her matching shoes and handbag disguise her expanding girth.
Posted by Stassa on Fri 17 Sep 2010
I am sure :-) European cities have featured in #mycityis. Please share some of them with us. The Quarterly is being read over here, some of us have been waiting for just this kind of publication for ages!
Carry on the good work.
Posted by Andre Hilhorst on Sat 18 Sep 2010
tulsa, oklahoma, is a bored teenager in high school track team with a toyota camry, planning to go to college in the next town.
Posted by j.e. on Sun 19 Sep 2010
Asheville, NC is a vibrant, beautiful older lady with a valuable lesson for everybody she encounters.
Posted by Tamahome Jenkins on Wed 22 Sep 2010
Edinburgh is an over-educated, well-postured and prematurely-greying 40-something male novelist, sitting in an ancient smelly pub telling raunchy stories with tremendous wit, clever prose and half-drunk surliness
Posted by David Fortin on Wed 22 Sep 2010
Durham NC, is a twenty-seven year old post-doc with Crone's Disease.
Posted by Ishai Buchbinder on Thu 23 Sep 2010
Monclova is a middle class man in his thirties contriting his glorious past faded in little more than 3 centuries of change. Immure by the oppression of thousands of drugdealers of the 'z cartel' hoping for the moment that someone will rebel agaisnt so he would follow.
Posted by Raul E Mtz. C. on Wed 29 Sep 2010
Barcelona is a girl in her early 20's discovering pot, drinking in the street, and illegal apartment squatting while having friends from all over the world crashing in said apartment that are also discovering themselves.
Posted by Miquel on Fri 15 Oct 2010
Albuquerque, NM is a honest prostitute in her mid-30's who believes she will someday be able to leave the business and achieve her dreams.
Posted by Gregory Sandoval on Sat 9 Apr 2011
Santa Fe is a well to do cheating wife in her late 40's who entices her husband into believing he is the true focus of her attention.
Posted by Gregory Sandoval on Sat 9 Apr 2011
Vancouver is a beautiful young woman on the cusp of adulthood, struggling to decide if she should take the easy money on offer, or, try to really make something of herself, in her own way and on her own terms.
Posted by Judy Rudin on Wed 13 Jul 2011