Past Pleasures of Urban Walking

[mspath]

The New York Times 03/11/2020 published a review by Parul Sehgal of The Walker , a new book by Matthew Beaumont who reasons "the slow death of purposeless walking as symptom of the slow death of democracy, of the human"
His is an erudite and well documented discussion of selected authors across time who found themselves by losing themselves in the delight of the then modern city.

Today such past easy meanderings as Matthew recounts seem, under the nearly universal confinement due to the Covid19 pandemic, to be impossible dreams.

 

[VNwalking]

Thank you Margaret. This looks like an excellent collection — and a reminder to all of us not to take simple things for granted anymore.

 

[SabsP]

Merci @mspath once again for sharing this article.
On my ever growing reading list.

This especially captured my interest.

"Borrowing from Baudelaire’s description of the flâneur as a “kaleidoscope gifted with consciousness,” Beaumont calls the distracted walker “a smartphone endowed with consciousness.”

Thank you!

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[Paladina]

Thank you drawing attention to this review. I love the diagnosis of Beaumont's 'advanced case of quotomania'. I must remember that one!