Head-lines: a mental health news show run by puppets
My name is Chris, and I write you from the inside out. Not a bad gig really, considering that your first thoughts are probably ‘what is all this then?’
I’m writing you from a room with a view of a city in Japan. I’m writing from the far end of the house, so the view from here is the view of another city in Japan. Just to drive it home, the city from which I am writing you from is called Tokyo.
The city in which I write you from is called Tokyo. It is a city with a very large population living in apartments. The population of this city is about ten people. It might be easier to imagine ten people living in the city if I just said that the city was the world. It would be kind of hard, as Tokyo is actually very big.
To be more accurate, Tokyo isn’t a city in the sense that it has streets or a city council. Rather, it is a vast network of small municipalities (like the one I am writing you from) that makes up a whole city, or in this case, a single city.
As you can imagine, there is only one Tokyo. And Tokyo is in a state of flux.
Tokyo has had political and economic difficulties for many years. But over the last decade, the troubles have escalated to a point where they have become existential. Tokyo has lost its sense of identity as a city, or rather, it has lost its sense of itself as a city.
Tokyo has become the world, and it has become Tokyo.
Tokyo isn’t what it was. It doesn’t matter if you live in the capital or in Tochigi or Yokohama, Tokyo is the city. And it is a city that isn’t where it should be.
That’s
