"...at the end of three days, moving southward, you come upon Anastasia. I should now list the wares that can be profitably bought here: agate, onyx, chrysophase, varieties of chalcedony; I should praise the flesh of the golden pheasant cooked here over fires of seasoned cherry wood; and tell of the women I have seen bathing in the garden pool and who sometimes -- it is said -- invite the stranger to disrobe with them and chase them in the water.

But with all this, I would not be telling you the city's true essence. The city of Anastasia awakens desires one at a time only to force you to stifle them, when you are in the heart of Anastasia one morning your desires waken all at once and surround you. Since it enjoys everything you do not enjoy, you can do nothing but inhabit this desire and be content.

Such is the power, sometimes called malignant, sometimes benign, that Anastasia the treacherous city possesses; for if you work eight hours a day as a cutter of agate, onyx chrysophase, your labor which gives form to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly only when you are its slave.

"Cities and Desire, 2"

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities.

Aaron McDonald Architect, 1 Union Square 903, New York, New York 10003