All architecture on the tableland is defensive, all monuments are like forts.

在这高原上，所有建筑样式都是防御式的，所有遗迹都像要塞。

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An unnamed narrator recalls how he met the mysterious Jacques Austerlitz in Belgium, where they talk about architecture in particular the hubristic grandiosity of public buildings, and the extravagant but useless defensive fortifications once beloved of European rulers.

ECONOMIST: New fiction: Strange but true | The