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

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. In fact what I've said is this:

Titan’s only colony is American, with a total population around a hundred. Roughly half live and work in Nivia, the rest are freelance traders living in cabins within a few hundred miles of the city, supplied by ferry rocket.

While its name may seem a misnomer for a settlement with a population of fifty, or a bad joke if you come from one of Earth’s cities and want to look at it that way, there’s ample precedent in American history for calling Nivia a city. The name is intended as a promise of things to come and a symbol of the colony’s hopes for the future. Officially Nivia is an incorporated city governed by a mayor, twinned with Kodiak, Alaska, and the capital and economic hub of Titan. It’s mostly built underground apart from its landing field and associated buildings, with a complex network of tunnels linking most areas.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I would get rid of the first two sentences. You have enough auctorial disavowal by saying "Officially" at the start of the first sentence.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Most other countries in the world have some sort of rule about what constitutes a city, e.g. population, having a cathedral, etc. It's only the USA that doesn't work that way. Since a lot of my readers are British I need to say something about why it might seem unusual but isn't for Americans.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

The thing is. the line about "a bad joke if you come from one of Earth's cities" sounds contemptuous when I read it. If you began "As with other tiny frontier settlements in American history, the name of city is intended . . . " it would seem less condescending.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Fair point. OK,I'll re-phrase it a little.

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

On a side note, I live near the city of Rochester in Kent, which managed to not be a city for a while because the council forgot to renew it in time... It's not _that_ big on its own but has a cathedral and the Medway Towns that it is part of are heading towards a million inhabitants (probably over it now).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/england/1991827.stm