May 022014
This short novella sprung forth fully formee in 1889 – and I discovered it eavesdropping on a twitter conversation by @pornokitsch and @markcn. This future history finds a series of future-Persian explorers with ridiculous but clever names discovering New York in a thousand years. Mitchell comments, via his Persian explorers on Americans’ love affair with money, passion for (foreign) royalty, and general character. The people wander through New York and Washington DC, leaving the reader to laugh at a range of ridiculous, funny passages and general silliness. It’s an almost lost classic that deserves to be read much, much more often.
Get it here (Gutenberg)