Heartfelt thanks for generously contributing this very rich piece, Francis, in response to my initial, enthusiastic but very tentative foray in mesological matters.

Having read Berque's book, I am able to follow your line of thought. However the nāmarūpa was initially puzzling to me. I fell in an essentialist, Platonic trap by understanding it as the separate, static existence of two realms: a realm of eternal ideas and the world of physical manifestations. However, upon a second reading I noticed that it's the dynamic, mutually arising character that is distinctive for nāmarūpa. Would you agree with that?

I want to study these ideas and sensibilities more deeply as I would like to take them as the basis for the 'empirical' (but not necessarily merely representational) research in my doctoral inquiry in the area of urban transformation.

In addition to its content, the essay is also a feast to the eye, not only because of the photographs, but also because of the careful formatting of the text and the aesthetic blend of alphabets with their appealing - and for outsiders somewhat mysterious - rhythm of diacritics.