Linlithgo -->

This is the mysterious, strangely alluring sign I routinely pass while driving north on Route 9. I have never heard this place spoken of, nor spotted it on any map -- my only knowledge of it comes from this single green and white sign which is posted at the terminal end of a lonely-looking road winding away from the crest of a particularly steep hill along Route 9, midway between Tivoli and the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.

I have wondered, idly, about Linlithgo. To me, the name evokes some imaginary place out of an extravagant sixteenth-century flight-of-fantasy -- a utopian city-state, a fabled land of youth or gold, a quaint, savage island somewhere beyond the setting sun, a paradisical, prelapsarian garden of singing birds, ripe fruit, and careless nudity, a whimsical, upside-down country populated by midgets or giants or dog-headed men.




What reminded me of this was an excellent article in the latest issue of Strange Horizons, "The Ten Stupidest Utopias!" More in-depth and profound than the title suggests, the article discusses and critiques a number of important classic utopias, from More's foundational text to Plato's Republic, the cyberspace of William Gibson's Neuromancer, and Charlotte Perkins Gillman's peculiarly Amazonian Herland.
Via Bookslut.

And as I recently mentioned, there is some great stuff, particularly the loads of beautiful images (such as the above), in the Utopia expo (French version) at the BnF.

Linlithgo...