Three vital reasons.
1. I love Edinburgh. If I didn't live in Glasgow I would live in Edinburgh. Or if I could afford Edinburgh now. I love it's mixture of old and very old (not so mad on the new). I love the juxtaposition of landscape and city. What other city has a view of Arthur's seat from its front door; what other city has a viewpoint like Edinburgh Castle in it's centre; what other city gives you a view of the sea (well the river that runs to the sea)? Some cities may have one of these, no other has them all. More than this, I love the village feel of Edinburgh. It is a small city, and one which feels like a lot of little villages tied together. Dean Village, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield, Morningside. Glasgow is metropolitan. Edinburgh is whatever the village equivalent of that is - micropolitan?
2. Edinburgh is a magnificent setting for stories. Stevenson showed that, and Ian Rankin, and I would like to think in my own sometimes humble way I'm adding to that lineage. The old city is a fabulous setting for stories. It has something of a Tardis-like quality to it, small on the outside, big inside, or on its underside. Go down Mary King's Close and get a sense of what the City must have felt like when it was surrounded by a wall, fingers of tenements pointing at the sky. Wonderful, dark and full of real mystery and danger. Furthermore, Edinbugh has not been used enough. I don't think Edinburgh has been properly exploited - the above company excepted - as the backdrop for stories. It fires the imagination, but it hasn't fired enough imaginations and I hope to redress that balance.
3. It's real. You don't need to make Edinburgh up, it's there already. You just have to walk it. And the beauty of the City is that you can go there now, today, and see and feel and breathe the history of the place, in its buildings, its streets, the remnants of its wall, the eternal geology of its rock, and so much more. Who needs a Harry Potter world when you've got Edinburgh?
No comments:
Post a Comment