City of Sin


It would be more impressive if it weren't all so very ordinary.

I don't know quite what I was expecting. Something more elegant. Something more, I don't know, James Bond. Something at least somewhat enticing. Something that might actually encourage you to sin. To get caught up in the glitz. To lose yourself in the fantasy of having more money, sex, and stuff than you could possibly imagine.

Although, to be sure, there were all of these things. Women in tight dresses and four-inch-high heels. Shops selling jewelry and designer-label fashions. Fake skies over pigeon-less fountains and facades pretending to be cities of culture and, presumably, class.

But it wasn't working for me. Not even the pretend interiors, which I had expected to like, if only for their sheer absurdity. It wasn't just that they were fakes. That I could have gotten into (well, maybe). It was what they were pretending not to be--and failing.

This, I realized as we strolled along the cobblestones, wasn't anything like ancient Rome or medieval Venice. This was just another shopping mall.

Color me stupid, but what was I expecting?

 

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 27, 2012 at 9:19 AM

    I have to say that this is a place that I have never remotely wanted to visit. I have loads of friends who vacation in Vegas frequently, but even when I lived a good deal closer than I do now, I had zero desire to go. Your response confirms my inclination to skip it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fencing BearJune 27, 2012 at 5:05 PM

      Happily, it was on the way. We didn't have to make a special trip for me to satisfy my curiosity.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJune 28, 2012 at 8:42 PM

    I've only been once, and only to the Strip. The spectacle is interesting for a couple of days. I was there for five and really missed my books.

    I also didn't find "Sin City" particularly sinful or raunchy - even the burlesque show I saw was rather quaint.

    Though I guess planning a tourist city in such an unsustainable environment may be it's own kind of sin, in the long term...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fencing BearJune 28, 2012 at 10:48 PM

      Actually, the most sinful thing I saw was the urban decay just blocks from the glitz on the strip. There are deserts and there are deserts; Las Vegas has both. But I agree about the lack of actual sinfulness in the glitz.

      Delete

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