Saudi Arabia Wants to Build This Bizarre City Dubbed “The Line”

The ambitious project sounds like something from a dystopian sci-fi movie about the death of the planet.

Saudi Arabia is developing a new city, 150-stories tall and built from scratch, that will serve as a semi-enclosed environment where people can live and work without ever stepping foot outside. And while the promotional videos released Monday are likely an attempt to give the development a utopian feel that recalls so many “intentional cities” of the 20th century, the project comes across as extremely dystopian.

The city, completely walled on four sides with some kind of ventilation on top, is planned to be about 546 yards tall (500 meters), 218 yards wide (200 meters), and 105 miles long (170 km), according to the promotional videos, and will feature cutting-edge technology along with high-speed transportation from end-to-end. Cars will be completely unnecessary.

A video uploaded to Twitter proclaims this new city will house 9 million residents to provide a more healthy and “sustainable” quality of life. And while it’s being advertised as an eco-friendly project, with water and power supplies billed as “100% renewable,” the details have yet to be provided.

“For too long, humanity has existed within dysfunctional and polluted cities that ignore nature. Now, a revolution in civilization is taking place. Imagine a traditional city and consolidating its footprint, designing to protect and enhance nature,” the narrator of the new video explains.

The video shows what appears to be autonomous drones zipping around the new city, with plenty of greenery. And people who live there will supposedly be able to go from one end to another in just 20 minutes.

“Residents have access to all their daily needs within 5-minute walk neighbourhoods,” the narrator continues.

Another promotional video, uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday and similar in content, shows the city from the perspective of a young woman literally flying through the environment. And its soundtrack definitely helps it sound dystopian—a dark and spooky cover of Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World.”

Why would they use a dark and spooky version of the song—something you’d be more likely to hear in the trailer for a 2010s movie about a serial killer? Your guess is as good as ours. But it’s certainly a choice.

As we mentioned earlier, this is far from the first time that an incredibly expansive planned community has taken shape on the drawing board. Even Amazon founder Jeff Bezos showed off something similar in 2019, albeit his plan is for a space colony.

Whether it was George Pullman’s hyper-capitalist town in Chicagoland, the drug-free cult of Synanon in California, or Upton Sinclair’s socialist cooperative in New Jersey, history has shown intentional communities are often ruined by the egos of the people building them. And there’s arguably no bigger ego on the planet than the developer of this city, Mr. Bone-saw himself, Mohammed bin Salman.

“We cannot ignore the liveability and environmental crises facing our world’s cities, and NEOM is at the forefront of delivering new and imaginative solutions to address these issues,” MBS said in a press release about the project.

“NEOM is leading a team of the brightest minds in architecture, engineering and construction to make the idea of building upwards a reality,” the Saudi royal continued.

The question is whether MBS will be able to pull this one off. The country likely has enough money to make it happen, but as we’ve learned from countless utopian communities of the 19th and 20th centuries, you always need more than just money to make a utopian experiment work.

QUESTION 1: Genre and register
Read Text A above and write a well-structured essay of 1000 – 1200 words in which you analyse how the purpose of the piece is established and maintained throughout. In your analysis, pay particular attention to the genre and the register of the text. Remember to provide evidence from the text for your claims.
[50 marks]

QUESTION 2: Persuasive/Argumentation techniques
Read Text A and write an essay of 1000 – 1200 words in which you discuss which persuasive and argumentation techniques are used in the piece; you should also consider whether they are effective. Remember to analyse HOW language features and rhetorical devices are used by the author to persuade the reader. Refer to specific examples from the text to substantiate your claims.

Experts Answer on Above Questions on English

Question 1: Genre and Register

Introduction to Genre and Register

The genre and register of a particular text are two important and interrelated exponents that help in building a pattern of writing. In simple terms, genre can be described as the kind or type of writing. One writing can be divided into 3 distinct genres, such as narrative, poetry, and Non-fiction. On the other hand, registers of language are the pattern or style of words and sentences that help in conveying the particular passage and these can be casual, formal, frozen, consultative, and intimate.

The particular passage titled, ‘Saudi Arabia wants to build this bizarre city dubbed “The Line”’, falls under the non-fiction genre and maintains a formal tone throughout to convey the central message to the readers. This essay is an attempt to explain how the purpose of the piece is established and maintained throughout the writing with particular attention to the genre and the register of the text with evidence to support the claims.

Establishing the Purpose Through the Opening

For the time being, one can expect that the text tries to explain how Saudi Arabia would create “The Line”. To build curiosity and pull the attention of the readers, the writer opens the text with the sentence: ‘the ambitious project sounds like something from a dystopian sci-fi movie about the death of the planet’. As it is non-fiction genre writing and the author is using a formal tone, he builds the purpose of the piece and gives a little bit of curiosity to it by the very first line of the text. When the first line is successful in grabbing the attention of the readers, a very formal and informative tone is observed in the very next paragraph where the author is providing information about the new city of Saudi Arabia.

The author writes, “Saudi Arabia is developing a new city, 150-stories tall and built from scratch”. This paragraph describes the present situation of the city and it also creates a striking contrast with the first sentence because when Saudi Arabia is aiming to give the utopian feel of intentional cities of the 20th century where people live in semi-enclosed environment living and work without ever stepping foot outside, the city it is inspired from science fiction movie which is dystopian in nature and talks about the death of the planet.

Informative Language and Non-Fiction Genre

The following paragraph is again very formal and maintains the genre of nonfiction. Now it appears that the central purpose of the writing is served because the journey from dystopian to Utopian City planning has already grabbed the attention of the reader and now the writer prepares for giving more intricate details. The third paragraph talks about the kind of ventilation and the length and breadth of the city. Cutting-edge technology and high-speed transportation facilities. The formal tone of giving information is also present in the fourth paragraph where the author mentions, “this new city will house 9 million residents to provide a more healthy and sustainable quality of life”.

Utopian Vision and Environmental Sustainability

The moment he enters one of the sub-themes of the writing, the healthy and sustainable quality of life, he constructs the following paragraph with an argument as to what is happening to the cities of the world today and why the construction of such a scientifically designed city is important for the sustenance of the world. He writes, “for too long, humanity has existed within dysfunctional and polluted cities that ignore nature. Now a revolution in civilization is taking place. Imagine a traditional city and consolidating its footprint, designing to protect and enhance nature”.

This paragraph becomes a perfect explanation of the importance of the prior paragraph and it consolidates the argument of the author regarding the significance of such man-made cities in today’s world. In the following paragraph, just to maintain the flow and also the register to convince the readers about the significance of the new city, the writer maintains the formal tone and register of the text to explain the genre of nonfiction and he writes about the new city: “The video shows what appears to be autonomous drones zipping around the new city with plenty of greenery”.

In this particular paragraph, the phrase, ‘plenty of greenery’ gets the most significant because the author has just discussed how modern cities have violated natural rules and if the human-made city has a lot of greenery, it shall serve the cause of nature and civilization, nearby consolidating exclaim of existence and need to create.

Contrasting Perspectives and Project Risks

Now the author tries to explain some risks involved with such an ambitious construction project. This contradiction is very necessary to create the perfect point of logic because if opposite viewpoints are discussed and conflicting experiences are taken into account while deciding on a particular topic, then the decision becomes much more coherent and the central theme of the passage is more convincingly conveyed.

When the author talks about the various failed projects where construction becomes the ego of human civilization and what was thought about is never achieved, the essence of warning for this particular city is also conveyed in the writing. The final note of hope is never missed by the author and he writes: “We cannot ignore the liveability and environmental crises facing our world’s cities, and NEOM is at the forefront of delivering new and imaginative solutions to address these issues ‘.

Maintaining the Formal Register

Finally, the purpose of the piece is established and the significance of building such cities is conveyed. The register of the text follows the formal tone throughout and the non-fiction genre is never missed while creating the convincing mode of text.

Therefore it can be concluded that the purpose of the text is to convince the readers about the importance of man-made cities today and that purpose is established and maintained throughout by providing facts, the significance of building cities, and even contradictory ideas. The genre of the text is nonfiction and the register of the text is basically in formal language. The author makes convincing arguments and uses a formal tone to mention why the conservation of nature and building new cities are important today.

Question 2: Persuasive/ Argumentative Techniques

Introduction to Persuasive and Argumentation Techniques

Rhetoric is an important part of writing where the author can develop various rhetorical tones to build the persuasiveness of the argumentative technique. The particular discussed writing deals with the fact of creation of a postmodern city “The Line” with all modern facilities and a strong view to conserve nature. The author uses the rhetoric of pathos and logos to appeal to the emotion and logic of the reader. This attempt is to explain how the author builds persuasive and argumentation techniques to convey the central message of the writing and also would analyze with examples from the text whether or not these techniques are effective.

Emotional Appeal (Pathos) in the Opening

The writing opens with the line: the ambitious project sounds like something from a dystopian sci-fi movie about the death of the planet. There can be no better example of pathos, a technique of rhetoric that is used to apply to the emotion of the audience. The very application of the words ambitious and dystopian pulls the attention of the reader because they can understand that it is not a very simple city and the writing will explain something different than normal construction-based writings.

This opening is very effective in nature because if the author would have directly entered into details, then many people could have omitted the writing as uninteresting. The pathos rhetoric is applied and the readers think that this writing has something different to say. As they are appealed to emotion, the effectiveness of the writing and the significance of the persuasive tone is increased to a great extent.

Logical Appeal (Logos) Through Facts and Statistics

The following paragraph talks about the details of the new city Saudi Arabia is planning to make. The rhetorical device identified in this paragraph is logos because there are a lot of details and statistics. Basically, the second and third paragraphs use the rhetoric of logos as they are explaining the pattern of the city Saudi Arabia is planning to make.

The application of pathos in the very first paragraph has drawn attention and the ambitious reader wants to know how the science fiction movie is inspiring Saudi Arabia to construct a city. Now the logos can be applied and proper facts can be presented to consolidate the significance of such a city to the reader. Therefore, it can be mentioned that the application of the rhetoric is perfect and it helps to build the effectiveness of the style of writing, making the writing very convincing.

Combining Emotional and Logical Appeals

The second and third paragraph applies logos as the central rhetoric and the author says, “The city, completely walled on four sides with some kind of ventilation on the top, is planned to be about 546 yards tall (500 metres), 218 yards wide (200 metres), and 105 miles long (170 km)”. The pattern in which the statistics are mentioned can also justify itself to be using the pathos rhetoric cause by mentioning the greatness of the city in expanse and height, the author appeals to the emotion of amazement in the audience.

This emotion is punched with information and the following lines conclude the paragraph by mentioning that the city will feature cutting-edge technology and high-speed transportation where cars will be completely unnecessary. The first three paragraphs consolidate the argumentative tone of the passage and help the audience to understand the importance of such a city along with having a constant curiosity to know more. Therefore, the writing style of the author is effective in building the persuasiveness of the writing and it constantly draws the attention of the audience while propagating the purpose of the writing to them.

Environmental Sustainability as a Persuasive Argument

The fifth paragraph mentions why these kinds of cities are important because modern cities have violated nature and polluted cities are spoiling civilization. As this modern city will have plenty of greenery, it must be appreciated by modern folk and Saudi Arabia must be encouraged to build such a thing. By the end of the sixth paragraph, the author is almost successful in persuading the audience about the significance of the particular kind of city and how Saudi Arabia is serving a great good to the Civilization by building the new dystopian city.

Contradiction and Counterarguments

The 7th, 8th, and 9th paragraphs have a strange quality. The author contradicts the central message and provides some dangerous facts about the creation of such ambitious projects. He says that ambitious Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had planned for a space Colony and George Pullman planned to construct a hyper-capitalist town in Chicago land, failing to reach completion due to the ambitious ego that ruined the greater significance. In these contradictory paragraphs application of logos and pathos is also visible. The question is, why does the author contradict his arguments toward the end of the writing?

There is no doubt that he is very successful in persuading the audience by using contradiction because he says that modern cities are facing a crisis of life and Saudi Arabia can be the only option for post-modern development. The contradictory arguments help in consolidating the central purpose of the essay and building the effectiveness of writing by giving opposing viewpoints and then presenting the opinion of the writer in a more consolidated and convincing manner.

Historical Examples and Emotional Appeal

The last paragraph of the writing is very interesting because it gives the ending point of the particular writing. The author uses the rhetoric of pathos to provide the line of hope and mentions, “as we’ve learned from countless utopian communities of the 19th and 20th centuries, you always need more than just money to make a Utopian experiment work”. This is a final and beautiful explanation of how pathos rhetoric can be used to close a particular piece of writing.

The persuasive and argumentative techniques utilized by the author are very effective because it is successful in pulling the attention of the audience and also emphasizes the importance of the reading. The author helps the reader to understand why building such a city is significant and what are the risks Saudi Arabia must keep in mind to successfully complete the construction.

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