During the first day within the city of St.
Petersburg, several themes present themselves, with many of them being
contradictory. To begin, what
immediately displayed itself as contradictory was the idea of St. Petersburg being
a town of great wealth, yet having plentiful examples of poverty. We saw several beautiful buildings during our
bus tour of the city, with palaces lining the edges on the river. These palaces were very expensive looking but
upon further inspection they also are showing signs of decay through their
sides crumbling. Additionally, seeing
the government buildings such as the Hermitage and the cathedrals with their
gilded domes strongly pointed to a wealthy city, yet the cars all covered in
mud and snow and the very bare nature of the bathrooms and resting rooms of
hotels and other facilities show the other side of the poor St.
Petersburg.
There
is also the contradicting ideas of the rational vs. the irrational. Evidence of the
rational can be seen in the very careful nature of street placement and
organization, with ninety degree angles and straight lines overlying the
natural and chaotic islands and marshland.
Yet the irrational nature of the natural landscape can be seen from the
crumbling nature of the edges of the town, due to the fact that St. Petersburg
is a constant example of the rationality of mankind fighting the irrationality
of nature. This confirms my
interpretation of the literature on the contradicting rationality and
irrationality of the city. I can see how
it would be possible for people to go mad here, with the constant decay of the
city striking at the edge of the vision of the city. The constant battle would make the tough grow
ragged over long periods of time, and make the lives of those who live here
beautiful yet difficult at the same time.
In
the end, St. Petersburg is a town full of contradictions, giving it a signature
that would be difficult to find anywhere else in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment