Tag Archives: Model Airplanes

I’ve noticed two references to “Histogram City” in your work, is there something to that? Is it code for an actual city, or something that explains the work it appears in?

Histogram City, I guess, is my Ilium, New York, my Winesburg, Ohio, my Yoknapatawpha County. It doesn’t really exist, or it does only as an amalgam or parody of all cities. City skylines look like histograms. It often seems human civilization charts its growth and superiority by how tall its building are, just as growth or success would be measured on a histogram. But just as any chart or graph shows only statistics, so too is our own humanity forgotten through what we sacrifice to become civilized—how we are co-opted and learn to identify ourselves and others by number rather than name, by statistical dichotomy rather than myriad individuality. Continue reading →