The first to be developed was the district of Eros, where the gyms, health food shops and cosmetic surgeons are to be found. After some discussion, the Mapenzian council installed mirrors around every shop front and awarded a franchise to a chain of minimalist bars. The district finds its patronage among those who would consider themselves young and the traveler to the city may spend many pleasant minutes admiring the health and beauty of those walking the streets of the district of Eros. The customers of Eros walk tall and straight, pairing up eagerly and with enthusiasm. Every pairing is witnessed by a mirror. There is beauty in Eros and those who inhabit the district of Eros find this beauty exalted by the thousand mirrors, each reflection being reflected itself in another mirror, and that reflection fleeing imperceptibly later into the arms of a different mirror, and so on, until the individual identity of each would be lover is fractured and restructured so each lover resembles every other lover but everyone is so beautiful that nobody minds.
In the district of Ludos, where we find the sports arenas, the entertainment complexes, the auction rooms and the concert halls, love is played as a game. Many of the female customers of Ludos carry fans from behind which they will peer coquettishly, sometimes tapping their partner on the wrist and exclaiming, teasingly, at his or her wickednesses. An unwary traveler, listening in on an conversation between three or four people may be amused by the variety of sexual behaviors hinted at and almost promised. He or she may be puzzled by the plentiful fights and arguments to be overheard but should pay attention to the twinkling, and the timing that accompanies these; these fights are not serious. He or she should note that whenever two people appear to be absorbed in each other, at least one of them is looking over the other's shoulder.
The district of Storge consists of schools and churches, of law courts and the offices of those who would better the lives of others. The lovers in the district of Storge pace the street separately, but each can be identified as the lover of another by their dress, their habits and their speech. There is peace in the district of Storge. The people of Storge have time to enquire after the health of every traveler
and will offer him or her much advice, based on their own life experiences.
The district of Pragma may seem cruel to the uneducated traveler, for here are found the houses of bondage, the sellers of slaves and the sellers of sex. Here is the district to which a girl will go when she needs a companion for the night or for life. This is the place where a male lover of boys will find a woman to stifle the cries of his parents. Here is the place to which the line without issue will turn to find the mother of children. Here you find those who would, for a minute or two, silence the need in the spaces within for someone who resembles that lover lost or the lover never gained. Here you find the woman desperate for a child before her childbearing time finishes. Here, you find those escaping loneliness. The district of Pragma is wealthy; it takes the money from the desperate, and the desperate are plentiful. The uneducated traveler is wrong in his aversion; in the district of Pragma, many lonely Mapenzians find companionship and happiness.
The traveler is advised not to enter the district of Mania, the last of Mapanzia's districts of Love, and most certainly not to take a room in a tavern there. The night in Mania is disturbed by the cries of the lovelorn, calling up to the windows of those who have spurned them, like street cats in heat. This is the district of bars and nightclubs and anonymous rooms, stacked like boxes under orange street lights. We also find florists, and the purveyors of chocolate. There is no sense to Mania; nobody is as happy as when he or she has lost another and now has the need for a grand gesture, hopeful of a grand gesture in return. Lovers lurch together down the streets of Mania, hand in hand, in reality and imagination, seeking this hidden, wooded corner, or that candlelit bar, only to repeat the cycle of loss and regain. When lovers meet in Mania, before they argue the scent of vanilla and roses rises from the street. When they part, a city council-sponsored orchestra of violins plays modern music in minor tones.
Thus we have the five districts of Love of Mapanzia. The educated traveler may notice that a sixth is missing. This would be the district of Agape. The Mapanzians feel that their understanding of Love is so consummate that Agape, the highest love of all, may be represented by Mapanzia in general. They are, to some extent, correct. The traveler to Mapanzia leaves with an impression of high vaulted rooms and white walls and passion conducted correctly; of fair trade coffee at dinner parties and reasonable and intelligent conversation; and of good-natured jousting among affectionate and well balanced people.
He or she does not see the lonely people in attics, those too ugly to be loved, or too desperate; those too insecure, or those hurt once and catatonic as a result. He or she is not told of the failures and the damage, of the neglect and the rejection. He or she does not hear the wailing and the crying kept locked in hidden rooms and muffled through thick black doors. He or she does not know of the mutilation and the hurt of those Mapenzia keeps hidden. These people are Mapenzia's secret, even from itself, and Mapenzia does not see them, either.
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