Anorexia? Not Quite.

Thin Cities. What in the world does thin cities have to do with all of the other cities? Out of the two times I have read about them, I have not been able to comprehend what the hidden meaning is.  Many times fashion and society has popped into my head, but that just doesn't make sense.  On pages 49-50, I thought that the thin cities had to do with anorexia.  Anorexia is a disease of the mind and it ends up destroying you.  On these pages, there are words like abandoned, catastrophe, young women, and mirrors.  It all relates to fashion and the disease.  To make it more obvious, the title of the city is THIN cities.

"...or many young women, slender, not tall of stature, luxuriating in the bathtubs or arching their backs under the showers suspended in the void, washing or drying or perfuming themselves, or combing their long hair at a mirror." (page 49)

That passage supported even more my idea of thin cities representing anorexia.  The women were obsessed with themselves. Isn't that the main reason why anorexia exists? I was so excited that I had understood this type of city until BAM! The rest of the page completely threw me off.

"In the sun, the threads of water fanning from the showers glisten, the jets of the taps, the spurts, the splashes, the sponges' suds." (page 49)

"I have come to this explanation: the streams of water channeled in the pipes of Armilla have remained in possession of nymphs and naiads." (page 50)

"In any case, now they seem content, these maidens: in the morning you hear them singing." (page 50)

These passages all explain joyful memories.  Anorexia isn't joyful. It usually makes the person depressed because they know they are fighting for their own life.  Unless the person is on something, anorexia does not bring happiness to a person.  Additionally, the mythological creatures are not known for being depressed and ugly, but instead happy and gorgeous.  A nymph is a beautiful female that is always joyful and is usually heard singing.  They are divine spirits that animate nature.  Naiads are a type of nymph that are found mostly in water.  My idea of what thin cities is about was wrong.  What other explanation could there be? Is it a mental or physical explanation? Perhaps both? What does thin cities have to do with the rest of the cities? For now it is unclear in my mind, but hopefully not for long.