I do not think that word means what you think it means...

[ffutures]

Small thought on re-reading Weinbaum's Flight on Titan to refresh my memory on a couple of points.

Is it just me that finds it incongruous that the main settlement on Titan, repeatedly described as a city - e.g. "Nivia, the City of Snow" - is revealed towards the end of the story to have a population of fifty.

According to Wikipedia there's actual precedent for this in the USA: Maza, North Dakota, with only 5 inhabitants, was a city as by North Dakota law any incorporated location is deemed a city regardless of size. I suppose that the name might represent a hope for the future, but I can't help feeling that it's asking to be ridiculed. Any thoughts on this? Or examples of so-called cities that started that size but went on to justify the name?

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Dunblane has a reputation for calling itself a City, when as of... not so very many years ago, they didn't have a single supermarket, and just a collection of small village shops.

They do however get to call themselves a city because they have a Cathedral.

Albeit a very small Cathedral.

They do however now have a Marks And Spencers, so they might finally have justified the name. :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - maybe I'll write in an (ice) cathedral.

[armb.livejournal.com]

Similarly St Davids is a city because of the cathedral.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallest_cities_in_the_United_Kingdom

And if there is an organised religion that has cathedrals active on Titan, it seems plausible that the main (only?) church might be designated as one. (IIRC, the deciding factor would be whether there is a bishop who can ordain new priests, or whether that has to wait for visiting bishop with his seat on another planet/moon. If the main settlement has a population of 50, having a bishop on site doesn't seem _that_ necessary, but maybe it's part of that "hope for the future" thing. And future Titan religion/naming won't necessarily follow those rules anyway.)

Or maybe they built the cathedral to justify calling themselves a city because they were tired of being ridiculed for it :-)