摘要：GRAHAM WARD CONFESSESthat his latest book, Cities of God, "wasconceived in New Orleans and brought to birth in Manchester" (1).Given that New Orleans serves as the context for conception, especiallyin hotel rooms in the French Quarter, Ward's pregnant literary symbolismappears quite appropriate. Indeed, after reading his book, one cannot help butappreciate just how appropriate its "Big Easy" provenance truly is.New Orleans prides itself on being an Epicurean epicenter, a bayou culturefocused on eating, drinking, music, dance and on the various pleasures of theflesh. As a carnival city, it emphasizes the carnal, attuning more to Mardi Grasthan Lent, and reflecting more an excess of desire than an aura of austerity. Itembodies a certain idolatry of the "body"—naked bodies, intoxicated bodies,corpulent bodies, stinking bodies and seductive bodies. It eternally aspires tomaintain its endless desires, thriving ultimately on the insatiable desire for desireitself. As a milieu of constant celebration and immediate gratification, itostensibly offers in its crush of bodies a genuine encounter of selves with others,while actually only creating a virtual reality of community—nothing more thanan atomistic amalgamation of voyeurs and fondlers duped by the city's trompel'oeil of fulfillment
