Week 3 of seminar class:
Synopsis of the 5 chapters –
- ZOBEIDE:
Zobeide known as the white city well exposed to the moonlight, whose foundation is based on a tale. Whose entire city is constructed on the basis of a dream, a very weird dream which men from different nations see. Where they see a woman running through an unknown city at night, with long hair ,naked and seen from behind and as they turn towards her, she had disappeared. All those men who dreamt of her wanted to pursue her, and desired to achieve her came together and built the city. Hence the city was constructed in such a mess, in a such a trap way where they packed all the ends so that the lady they dreamt of couldn’t escape. Eventually new men who saw same dream kept coming in and making alterations in the city based on what they had seen in their dream, eventually the first person to come together and build this city didn’t even know why they had come in to build such an ugly city.
- ZEMRUDE:
The city zemrude gets it form based on the beholder, its based on how one sees the city. It also depends on the mood of the person visiting the city, where if a person is in a good mood will see the city in a positive and beautiful way where he or she will see the fountain , and the flapping curtains, whereas if the person is in a really bad mood will see nothing but negativity around , will see the garbage, litters and the drainage. Well but it couldn’t be said as to which aspect is truer than the other. Few people do say that there were two parts to the city which was the upper and the lower zemrude and the upper zemrude was chiefly known.
- EUSAPIA:
The city was known for its carefree, enjoy life attitude. The city talks about how to take a leap from life to death in a less abrupt manner. Where they build an identical city underground, where they said the dead lived peaceful and the corpses carried out their activities below. Every time they went underground they saw something changed or developed. Eventually it was said it was the dead who built the city. It was then called the twin city and they couldn’t keep a track of who was alive or dead in that city. Basically the city of deads.
- ADELMA:
Adelma the city of dead , where you won’t see anyone happy, where Marco polo at once saw people at different places doing different chores and the next moment he either didn’t see them , like they had disappeared , r he thought they resembled to the people he knew and who were dead. Adelma was like a night mare, where you encounter the dead only .it was like the time where among the people you have known the dead had outnumbered the living. Adelma was the city where you arrive dead, which means the beyond or like past life of people wasn’t happy.
- ARGIA:
Argia was different from other cities as it was more about the earthly matter than they could alsi breathe air, you could find streets filled with clay, dirt , dust, mud . There wad no account of human habitation, the place was deserted. There were people who said that nothing can be seen from the top, some said there was something below Which means again there were 2 parts to the city. People said if you would keep your ear to the ground you could here the sound of a door being slammed , which meant there was something anonymous existing below but was not to be seen.
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