AD57

The suburbs are deepening in Reading, W. says. The suburbs are condensing. They're becoming more real. They've almost managed to pass themselves off as reality.

W. thinks of Philip K. Dick's gnostic vision. For Dick, the world as we see it is a stage-set. It's false. History ended in AD57. It ended when the Roman Empire reigned triumphant. The empty-headed yuppie is really a centurion, W. says. The company manager is an tribune. Reading is really Rome, just as all towns and cities are Rome.

W. thinks of the Biblical cities: of Sodom and Tyre. Of Babylon and Jericho. Aren't they really one city, the same city, the same horror?

But in Reading, it will only ever be the '80s, W. says. The council houses are being eternally sold off. The markets are being eternally deregulated. The corporations are eternally moving in. The housing estates are eternally being built. The golf courses are eternally opening up. The gypsies are being eternally moved on.

The suburbs are deepening, W. says. Reading looks like its succeeding. Reading is passing itself off as utopia. Reading says: this is the future. This is all there every can be. But the financial storms is coming, W. says. The banks will fall, and Reading, too, will fall.