Invisible Bicycle: Parallel Histories and Different Timelines ed. by Tiina Männistö-Funk, Timo Myllyntaus

Abstract

Reviewed by: Invisible Bicycle: Parallel Histories and Different Timelines ed. by Tiina Männistö-Funk, Timo Myllyntaus Paul Smethurst (bio) Invisible Bicycle: Parallel Histories and Different Timelines. Edited by Tiina Männistö-Funk and Timo Myllyntaus. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Pp. xii+282. $133. The theme of this collection of eight essays on bicycle history is the relative invisibility since the rise of automobility of both the bicycle as a socio-cultural phenomenon and of cycling as a practice. The essays by Cox and Oddy which top and tail this collection take the theme in interesting and nuanced directions. Others are more tightly focused on localized histories [End Page 360] of bicycles, cycling, and transport policy. These advance the theme of the “invisible bicycle” through gaps and silences in bicycle history. Männistö-Funk’s introduction is subtitled, “The Historical Production of the Invisible and Visible Bicycles” (sic). The somewhat abstruse title is an example of shortcomings in the copyediting in some of the essays (especially evident in footnotes and references). The introductory essay then struggles to reconcile what seem to be a disparate set of reworked conference papers to a common theme. It then launches into a discussion of the bicycle’s conspicuous absence from dystopian science fiction. This ends, oddly, with fine examples of the bicycle in science fiction literature and film. Despite Cox’s excellent critique of the tendency in extant bicycle histories towards periodization and Western-centric meta-narratives, the volume as a whole doesn’t answer his call for “pluralized histories of cycling which are both socially and geographically diverse” (p. 47). The “parallel histories” and “different timelines” announced in the volume’s subtitle rarely deviate from Western orthodoxies. Furthermore, despite the “broad geographical spread” (p. vii) of essays promised in the preface, there is one essay on the Japanese cycle industry, with the others mainly confined to European contexts. Neither are there any alternative histories; race, class, and gender issues are disappointingly invisible. In her introduction, Männistö-Funk compares the “invisibilities” of bicycles and cyclists in contemporary Western society with the social invisibility of minorities and the marginalized. If this refers to recreational riders and middle-class commuters, it is a First World problem; it is regardless a false analogy. Cox’s essay on the meta-narratives governing bicycle histories seemed familiar to me, as did Oddy’s on “History, Tweed and the Invisible Bicycle.” The latter was perhaps the inspiration for the volume, since its thesis is echoed in other essays. The presence/absence of the bicyclist in the social imaginary is an interesting idea, especially when this is mapped against modernist/postmodernist and other cultural transformations. Oddy’s essay begins with the actual invisibility of cyclists and legal requirements in the United Kingdom to make them visible. In a neat turn, the London “Tweed Run” restores visibility through an anachronistic Debordian spectacle, while simultaneously engaging in a form of postmodern regression and street protest. Oosterhuis’s essay compares national cycling practices and transport policies, sensibly concluding that national characteristics, infrastructure, terrain, economics, and class all give rise to national bicycle policies, which in turn shape local bicycle culture. Bicycle histories thereby have trajectories beyond the metanarratives of motor transport history. Missing from all this, however, is consideration of integrated transport policies in those cities responding to climate change. [End Page 361] Emanuel’s essay touches on climate change as it explores Stockholm’s focus on making the city attractive through bicycle-friendliness, as well as challenging the role of the car for everyday commuting. However, as Emanuel points out, there is an important urban/regional divide here, as the success of urban schemes is not replicated in the regions. The history of the so-called “Dutch” bicycle is the subject of Tai and Veraart’s essay. This traces the development of a machine which was not so much “invented” (always a slippery term) as appropriated from standard imports, and then adapted to local conditions and demands. The firm and continuing belief in the national pedigree of the “Dutch” bicycle suggests the triumph of cultural history over materialism, and is an example of manifest acculturation. Following the general theme of some of the...