Real Places: An Unconventional Guide to America's Generic Landscape

Today's "good address" may be tomorrow's "changing neighborhood", with "drug scene" and even "ghost town" not too far off. The "edge of town" may be overrun with "speculative sites". A "depressed area" could be turning into a "growth area" and "lovers' lane" into a "trouble spot". In these "generic man-made sites", urban observer and commentator Grady Clay discovers the key to understanding our cultural geography. Although they can't be found by name on most maps, these places exist in every city and do similar work. Defined by cultural, political, and economic needs rather than any natural boundary, "Fall Color Country", "The Good Address", and "Disaster Area" are primarily creations of the human mind. These are just some of the places Clay takes us through in this delightful, original guidebook to our ever-changing man-made landscape. Clay explores the deep structure of human adjustment to time and place: to traffic and congestion, war, weather, and machines, and the expanding presence of other people. He also tracks the play of language as it opens up and represents real worlds, showing how place-naming is the key to managing new environments. From the boondocks to the back forty, from gastown to crack corner, we name these places to get a handle on the unfamiliar - to make them our own.