'Fear and money in Dubai' by Mike Davis and 'At home in the neon' by Dave Hickey

With the introduction to 'Fear and the Money in Dubai' by Mike Davis you are immersed into the characters experience of visiting this place. He has made you relate to what you would experience if you were on that plane. The means of flying you in is a scene setter which sets the mood for the narrative. I feel that he starts in this manor to hint at the fact that the majority of people coming to Dubai are outsiders and that the major artery is the airport. He uses extravagant descriptions to embody the overwhelming gigantism of this city that can only really be fully appreciated from above. This is where the Western rich come to play 'an entirely separate, Western-based commercial system for its financial district that would do business in dollars, and in English'.

The title immediately make you think of the film 'Fear and loathing in Las Vegas' by Hunter S Thompson. This film blurs the lines between the real and surreal never quite identifying between what is real and what is part of the characters imagination. I feel that this is a hint towards how he feels about Dubai. That this city boarders on the real and surreal. Like on a film set the city is squeaky clean on the surface but behind the scenes there is a underworld that is dark and fearful. This is in stark contrast to what Dave Hickey writes in 'At home in the neon' where he describes Las Vegas as an open book with no hidden secrets and all is to be see in daylight. With this city being so honest you feel that what you see is what you get and there are no hidden agenda. `The secret of Vegas is that there are no secrets`. Yes there maybe the dirty feeling you may get once you have been there, the 'Hangover' scenario, but this is not a hidden feeling, this is what most people expect when they visit this city. There are no predigests here, everyone is on the same level no matter who you are or where you come from. A democratic city. Peoples hopes and dreams here are valued from wanting to move from a food waitress to a cocktail maker because the tips are better, to coming for your last right as a single bachelor.

To me what makes home home is a place that holds certain values. In my heart of hearts, home is really where I grew up, a small sleepy countryside village in Worcestershire but to be honest anywhere I stay for a significant amount of time that embodies the same values that I felt there could be referred to as my home. Somewhere that I am who I am and don't feel pressured to be anything else.

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they take you in.”– Robert Frost.