I once came to a city whose name changes every day. Its citizens' moods were reflected in the names of their city, their sense of fashion focused almost exclusively on their metropolis. In the evening the residents go to bed in one place, and wake up to a rainy morning in some other city, in some other mood. The spend their days working, and in the evenings they gather in their small, damp flats to debate the merits of a new name for the city. Some names were initially so popular that they were retained for many days. But eventually the city would reassert itself and the residents would resume arguing about the next name.
This constant name changing causes many problems. It is difficult for foreigners to find the city because all maps are guaranteed to be out of date. In fact, possession of maps was prohibited within the city: the law makers reasoned that since every map was wrong, the making and selling of such maps constituted fraud, and therefore had to be prevented for the good of the people.
It is also difficult to send mail to and from this city: any address you write on the envelope will certainly be wrong by the time the letter arrives. The rulers anticipated this problem as well, and made it illegal to correspond with foreigners. They decided that if no citizen communicated with a foreign city, no foreigners would attempt to visit.
(c) 1994 - 1996 Gene Golovchinsky
Many thanks to Luisella Romeo for her suggestions.
This piece is based on the style of Italo Calivno's Invisible Cities.