"The Concentration City" is set in a "city" encompassing everything in known existence to its inhabitants. The districts comprise endless streets and buildings and seemingly infinitely high and low levels, or floors, with few trees and little wildlife. Cubic space is in shortage and expensive. High speed transportation is in use, but it is implied that many people do not find the need to leave their particular area. The people do not know what lies beyond the endless urban expansion, but seem to care little, and generally assume that there are just endless levels and districts that have existed forever.
The short story follows a physics student named Franz, who devotes his time to the concept of "free space"—the idea that somewhere there must be just infinite amounts of space, a concept labelled as nonsensical by most of the other inhabitants of the city. He also wishes to develop a machine for flight—a relatively unknown theory due to the complete lack of partially open spaces.
Eventually Franz decides to travel on one of the high-speed rail coaches for as long as possible in one direction in order to discover what lies beyond the urban zoning and trying to find free space. The story ends when Franz, after ten days of travelling, realizes that the coach is travelling back in the opposite direction. When he is finally stopped by the authorities he notices the date of a calendar is unchanged from when he set forth travelling. Franz discovers that if one keeps travelling forward, one finally ends back in the same place at the same time.
Relationship with other worksedit
Similar conceptions litter speculative fiction, but two distinct types of 'infinite cities' are noteworthy:
"Diaspar", from Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars, said to contain all wonders and marvels: a possible influence on this city
The City from the Tsutomo Nihei's Blame! manga - a near infinite structure larger than the solar system, finite, but unbounded. The exterior is also the goal of the protagonist.
Referencesedit
^"JG Ballard Book Cover Scans: 1956-59". The Terminal Collection. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
concentration, city, dystopian, short, story, british, author, ballard, first, published, under, title, build, worlds, volume, number, january, 1957, reprinted, collections, billennium, chronopolis, later, under, revised, title, disaster, area, also, included,. The Concentration City is a dystopian short story by British author J G Ballard first published under the title Build Up in New Worlds volume 19 number 55 in January 1957 It was reprinted in the collections Billennium and Chronopolis and later under its revised title in The Disaster Area 1 and was also included in The Complete Short Stories of J G Ballard Volume 1 and The Complete Stories of J G Ballard 2 Contents 1 Setting and plot 2 Relationship with other works 3 References 4 External linksSetting and plot edit The Concentration City is set in a city encompassing everything in known existence to its inhabitants The districts comprise endless streets and buildings and seemingly infinitely high and low levels or floors with few trees and little wildlife Cubic space is in shortage and expensive High speed transportation is in use but it is implied that many people do not find the need to leave their particular area The people do not know what lies beyond the endless urban expansion but seem to care little and generally assume that there are just endless levels and districts that have existed forever The short story follows a physics student named Franz who devotes his time to the concept of free space the idea that somewhere there must be just infinite amounts of space a concept labelled as nonsensical by most of the other inhabitants of the city He also wishes to develop a machine for flight a relatively unknown theory due to the complete lack of partially open spaces Eventually Franz decides to travel on one of the high speed rail coaches for as long as possible in one direction in order to discover what lies beyond the urban zoning and trying to find free space The story ends when Franz after ten days of travelling realizes that the coach is travelling back in the opposite direction When he is finally stopped by the authorities he notices the date of a calendar is unchanged from when he set forth travelling Franz discovers that if one keeps travelling forward one finally ends back in the same place at the same time Relationship with other works editSimilar conceptions litter speculative fiction but two distinct types of infinite cities are noteworthy Diaspar from Arthur C Clarke s The City and the Stars said to contain all wonders and marvels a possible influence on this city The City from the Tsutomo Nihei s Blame manga a near infinite structure larger than the solar system finite but unbounded The exterior is also the goal of the protagonist References edit JG Ballard Book Cover Scans 1956 59 The Terminal Collection Retrieved January 6 2009 The complete stories of J G Ballard W W Norton amp Co 2009 ISBN 9780393072624 External links editThe Concentration City title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database nbsp This article about a science fiction short story or stories published in the 1950s is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Concentration City amp oldid 1051854121, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
