Or why junk mail is your friend…

Junk mail is what keeps Cities sated.

Of course, that’s a huge generalisation, any Urbanomancer will tell you that, but it’s true enough that I can say that.

Junk Mail’s not exactly what feeds cities, either, but it’s what keeps them from wanting more substantial meals, like, well… us.

Think about it, right? Most junk mail is meaningless. There’s next to no chance of it succeeding as advertising and getting people to buy the product it’s for. But it’s got the promise of things, and that’s what’s important. Your mail is a marker to the city that you exist, it’s one of the ways it can sense you’re there. Every mailbox, and every letterbox flap is an open pore, as well as a tiny mouth, and it both senses and feeds through them. Mailshots for “Special Offers” and “Free Trials”, Holidays, Cars… They’re things which appeal to our human aspirations of wealth and material gain, and they’re just enough to stop the Cities trying to feast upon the real deal instead. Those Credit Cards you get sent which no-one should be dumb enough to sign and start using? They’re the sweet coating on the pill. Every time one goes through your letterbox or gets stuck in your mailbox, the City’s being tricked into not eating you instead. Presumably, people in the countryside just have to suffer for the rest of our sakes.

Most of this was set up without anyone knowing the true purpose, of course. But no-one knows who found out, or who started it. The flyers and mailshots are done so cheaply that the Postal Services get little profit out of them, but those at the top know the truth. That British Postman who got suspended for telling customers the secret “opt-out”, that was the first time anyone had come close to stopping the flow, and letting the secret out.

The way I hear it, they stopped the junk mail going to his house, and let ‘nature’ take its course.