Less than the sum of their parts

摘要

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, is shaped like a kidney, taller than it is wide, curving eastwards slightly on its longer sides. It is contiguous, blob-like, sensible. Birmingham, Alabama, founded in 1871 and named after its English ancestor, looks as if it was imagined by a deranged computer, straight lines and sharp angles and missing bits in the middle (see illustration above). One pseudopodium extends to the west, long and thin, until it widens out a bit and ends in a box. To the east is a tumorous outgrowth, thin, then wide, then thin again, doubling back on itself several times.