![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
La Serenissima
Oct. 22nd, 2023 11:40 amBook Review: Venice, by Jan Morris
If I was a little disappointed by Among the Cities, this is a return to form. In the foreword, Morris notes that this has been revised twice; I note that's something I wasn't so keen on for her Oxford book, but, perhaps because it's a destination I visited once, many years ago, it doesn't bother me here. The original writing is from the 1960s, though in the updates Morris notes the explosion of mass tourism that has taken place since then. Some would have us believe that tourism is bad, and there's certainly a case that too much tourism is bad; but how much is too much, and how are we to ration it fairly? In any case, this is not a tourist guide book, but more of a psychogeographical meandering. The book divides into three parts: The People, the City, and the Lagoon. The flow is thematic rather than chronological or geographical; the writing is authoritative but informal, with propriety but often a whiff of irony or scandal, and Morris combines history, geography, people and a state of mind.
If I was a little disappointed by Among the Cities, this is a return to form. In the foreword, Morris notes that this has been revised twice; I note that's something I wasn't so keen on for her Oxford book, but, perhaps because it's a destination I visited once, many years ago, it doesn't bother me here. The original writing is from the 1960s, though in the updates Morris notes the explosion of mass tourism that has taken place since then. Some would have us believe that tourism is bad, and there's certainly a case that too much tourism is bad; but how much is too much, and how are we to ration it fairly? In any case, this is not a tourist guide book, but more of a psychogeographical meandering. The book divides into three parts: The People, the City, and the Lagoon. The flow is thematic rather than chronological or geographical; the writing is authoritative but informal, with propriety but often a whiff of irony or scandal, and Morris combines history, geography, people and a state of mind.