badgerblog - cities viewed through other people

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November 10th, 2009

10:26 am

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cities viewed through other people

"He said "Have you noticed? To meet a new person here in Tethys is always like entering a new city…"
He'd said that before, too,
...
"At least, it's always been that way with me. A new friend, and they invariably have an appointment or another friend on some street you've never been on before. It makes the city -- come alive."

- Samuel R. Delany, _Triton_ (Note: Unsurprisingly a very similar passage exists in _Dhalgren_.)

Spent last Tuesday taking a recently-relocated-to-RTP friend out to lunch [1] and touring downtown Raleigh. Because he kept up a Jack Skellington-style "what's this?" impression the entire time I noticed things I had never seen before. (I do the same thing with movies: there's one of my favorite films that I saw four, perhaps five times in the theatre and ten+ times on VHS and DVD since, and the last time I watched it I caught one new scene I could not remember ever noticing before. It's only a second or so, there's no dialogue, and nothing specific happens other than *that* character is present at that moment, but it was new to me.)

Apparently I should add "tour guide" to the "things I'm doing when I'm not busy doing other things" in the manner of Bogie Freedom.

[1] I am taking advantage of my *ahem* extremely flexible daytime schedule for lunches and technical or scientific lectures during the day in the area. My dance card is pretty open.

Tags: raleigh

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