At last, buried in a time capsule to inform the year 2134, a complete history of the 2084 Paris Olympics. Played in the aftermath of the Great Digital Purge and the Southern Exodus, and at the end of the Analog Renaissance, the "Games of Fire and Ice" finally reveal themselves in this behind the scenes history of their preparation and play. Including:
The Ulaanbaatar Game's extreme sports Olympics.
The failure of Amsterdam's Coca Cola Puts a Smile on Your Face Great Sea Wall.
The remodeling of Paris after the fall of the Eiffel Tower.
The demise of the "Winter" Olympics.
The design of "the best rodent-based mascot of any Games."
The first Olympics for the new refuge nations.
The "liberation" of performance enhancement.
Corporate logos festooned the Eiffel Tower like baubles on a Christmas tree. BitRomp, Comkit, Grupak, Liqueer Liqueurs, Bilgemouth Kissing Fluid, RomDink Networkers; a blizzard of symbols in circles and cones and swishes. In their own day, they had weight; if not cultural, then at least gravitational. When the last mighty logo took its prideful place at the very top of the Tower (embarrassingly, Coca Cola again) the mighty work of man came toppling down. Paris wept, of course. And the Parisians vowed to abstain from the lure of lucre. They swore oaths against advertising, marketing, branding, and tourism. They affirmed themselves opposed to the sale of history, heritage, custom, or culture. A noble self-denial. Still, things had to be paid for. It's the way of things, stubbornly refusing to exist until the conjuring of capital brings them to the world of warmth. You would think that things, seeing how loved they are, would spontaneously generate and exist just to enjoy the satisfaction they briefly bring. But the best you can say of things is that when desire alights on them, a conspiracy of competitive commerce ushers them into a waiting world-or at least to that segment that can pay. Olympiad 2084; A Memorial Guide: a dystopian novel stamped with a five ring happy face. A meditation on competition. A primal scream masked in wit.
