Two Notes on Globalization

November 1, 2007

[photo used under Creative Commons license,
by Flickr user Pete the Painter]

1. Architecture in Dubai
I did not know that the tallest building in the world is now under construction in Dubai. Philip Kennicott had an insightful article on Dubai in the Washington Post a week ago. Besides informing me about the Burj Dubai, it is a smart discussion of the creation of an "iconic" architectural landscape.

Imagine creating a world out of virtually nothing.. making someplace out of noplace. There are a limited number of strategies for an architect in such a situation. Las Vegas tries to create a hundred micro-environments that transport the visitor to different places. Casinos borrow from ancient Egypt, Rome, Venice, New York.. or any number of others. This is the creation of a new place by means of borrowing the elements of some tried and true place.

Dubai does not appear to go in for this kind of mimicry.. so how does it make itself into something fantastic? It seeks the stupendous.. that immediately noticeable and uncopyable look. This is what Kennicott terms the "iconic". The Burj al-Arab, the five star+ hotel that costs $5,000 per night and sits alone away from the shore, is an example of the iconic structures that Dubai is seeking to build. Speaking of this and the Emirates Towers, Kennicott notes: "They are found on postcards and are reproduced as key chains. Elegant stencils of their shapes appear in the elevators of the government building where one goes for permits.."

I was also interested to learn that Frank Gehry has designed a building for Dubai.. and that makes perfect sense! Gehry is the poster-architect for the "one of a kind wonder structure" that will create a place out of noplace. In a world divested of traditional forms and local stories, one important route to the creation of place will be through Gehry-like buildings. We should be suspicious of places created by wonder buildings. We should insist on a form of built community that reaches beyond the sterile confabulations of the international business elite.

[photo used under Creative Commons license,
by Flickr user Kalavinka]

2. Cacao Beans in South America
The New Yorker has the habit of running articles on the origin of various foods. The October 29, 2007 edition has an article on Chocolate and its production from cacao beans ("Extreme Chocolate" by Bill Buford, not available online). The article mentions that the first chocolate shop opened in London in 1657.. but the development of chocolate that resembles what we mostly consume (milk chocolate or fancy chocolates) would take considerably longer. The chocolate innovators have names that sound familiar: the Cadbury Brothers, Henri Nestlé, and Milton Hershey.

At one point in the article, as Buford recounts the history of chocolate, he mentions as a valuable source the book True History of Chocolate by Michael Coe. And I thought to myself: what a typical modern book. It seems as if all the time someone is writing a history of salt or coffee or some other commodity that we take for granted. Here are a few examples of the genre that I found quickly on Amazon:

Spice: The History of a Temptation

The Potato: How the humble Spud Rescued the World

Salt: A World History

Cod: A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World

The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unlocking the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

These works focused on a single food could be taken as a non-fiction genre that is indicative of our globalized culture.

Why would someone not have written a book on the true history of chocolate in the 18th or 19th century? Getting at the history of chocolate meant travel to the rainforests of Brazil and other difficult to reach spots in South America, and if someone in the 19th century had made that journey the traveler would be likely to write up such experiences as a travel narrative rather than as a narrowly focused book on a single food. Our ability to travel most anywhere has made big travel narratives less interesting.. and this in turn has pushed forward works of non-fiction that concentrate on something like chocolate.