V.
"This town is new to me." "How do you like it?" "The steam oozing up from of the streets is quite an impressive sight." "It's like the sidewalk is the top level of some kind of weird life-support machine." "It's a bit dated, though." "What do you mean?" "It reminds me of those steam-engines from a hundred years ago." "Their sluggish pace seems a far cry from what the city promises today." "Dinky-toys flashing by, people falling over themselves in in a rush?" "Not to mention the buildings soaring up into the sky." "This is just about the most horizontal city I have ever seen." "But what about all those skyscrapers." "Once you get between them you loose sight of the overall picture." "You mean the streets are like tunnels and the skyscrapers break up the sky." "Don't you see it's because the view is blocked that the skyscrapers keel over. You feel as though you're standing on a short flight of steps, looking out over a vast blue swimming pool." "A pool you could walk right across." "Two roofs, no horizon." "The buildings are high but look flat; the ground appears solid but is transparent." "Besides, you wouldn't feel safe if all that imposing verticality were really there." "You always have a good time in the back of a limo with the TV on and a glass full of liquor."
U.
"The eagle's so close, I can almost touch it." "It looks like the helicopters are below us, but then again..." "Aren't you two exaggerating?" "Look around you. The clouds are as soft as pillows." "Yeah... that's quite a feeling!" "What kind of feeling?" "I have to say this is a spectacular view." "Stunning." "It's as though height has transformed into the shimmering surface of a pool." "What strikes me the most is that there hardly seems to be any difference between the old and the modern." "Of course. From up here all kinds of styles sit side by side." "Look how modern the past appears." "The higher you go, the older it gets." "The buildings are merging below us." "In spite of the huge differences, everything looks flat." "So there's no view left?" "Precisely, the view has become a postcard." "A live transmission." "Complete with atmospheric interference." "Are you telling me that there's no more view, height, old or modern." "Isn't that a little over the top?" "Sorry, I got carried away for a moment." "Anyway, I won't give up. Romantic dreams and nostalgic speculations are over and done with." "The death of the view." "The world flat, again." "And the helicopters below." "What about the eagle?"
L.
"Nothing can beat these cabins for luxury" "Give me brightly coloured plastic seats and a whiff of excitement anyday." "The view is much better from here." "Behind the glass, safe and sound." "Defined in every detail." "Excuse me?" "The live event has been replaced by an immense screen. We're meant to watch the event but at the same time we can see every drop of sweat. What actually happens is almost irrelevant." "A little man disappearing into the distance." "Literally and..." "Even the brass band is in full stereo." "The detail has overcome the panorama." "Today, images of the world consist only of a succession of details. Images, even multiple ones, seem to be selected without any coherent reason." "A topsy-turvy world." "A celebration of the baroque." "And those huge screens complete the celebration?" "Well, they do muddle the concepts of 'here' and 'there'." "I have to admit that it is still possible to distinguish between the two, but I can well imagine that changing too." "It's true that you can no longer tell the difference between what you see and what actually happens." "Just imagine the same thing happening to the details - a cheerful world from which reality has been expelled." "That would certainly be convenient. You'd never have to move, yet you'd still be in control of everything." "Modern day voyeurism." "Exactly." "Man extracted from reality, to become part of an eternal fiction." "I can't wait."
G.
"The sky's the limit." "Because it's so clear today?" "No. The other day I saw something on TV that really fascinated me." "What was it?" "Calgary. The most sophisticated techniques, aerodynamic design, ultra-modern electronics. The image of top international sport today." "Endless training, all scientifically monitored. The ultimate performance." "The athlete as machine, trained by sensitive computers." "1.09.14 seconds. The runner-up 0.0001 seconds behind." "The one thing they can't measure is the pressure of competition, the stress of public scrutiny." "Perhaps they'll get around to that one day." "All these intricate devices mean that today's victories are won by the smallest of margins." "A last, desperate attempt to distinguish one man from another, when distinction has long proved to be irrelevant." "Desperation justifies any means." "Besides, I'm not really interested in discussing ethics." "The phenomenon itself is what fascinates me." "Speed?" "The ultimate speed, the ultimate height." "Even better, the actual limit." "A limit suggests an end, but once reached the limit seems to shift time and again." "The sad thing is we don't live in a world without limits, that would make a lot of things easier." "I disagree. As our view of the world changes, so do limits. Right now the series of digits after the decimal point is expanding. Research at both ends of the scale - the microscopic and the macroscopic - is pushing the limit ever further." "Are you saying that there's some artificial link between the parts and the whole, like a marriage of convenience?" "That's the state of affairs in science. But it's no longer a case of either microscopic detail or universal whole." "The limit of both those terms seems to have been breached." "I can almost touch the eagle."