I WAS walking one day in a mall lined with shop displays. It was as though I was walking along streets that had been moved from the town center into an interior, and I was startled. For a few moments, I didn’t know where I was.

Right then I realized that a mall is not a spot on a map. It is not a location: set far from earth and sky, it seems untouched by time and natural elements. No matter where it is, a mall is a generic thing: a large buil