Geoff Nicholson's Blog, page 54

  ULYSSES ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD

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margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tVmvoHEODS..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tVmvoHEODS..." width="504" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s a good few decades since I first read the opening lines of the “Proteus” chapter in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ulysses, </i>the chapter in which </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Stephen Dedalus walks along </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sandymount Strand</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read the words "Ineluctable modality of the visible," reached for the dictionary and looked up the meaning both of ineluctable and modality, and I think I was at least very slightly wiser afterwards.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wLpUVUNJhm..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wLpUVUNJhm..." width="410" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now I know, or at least I’m given to understand, that this is a reference to Aristotelian notions of form and substance, that what the eye sees is</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> not inherent in the thing seen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point Stephen closes his eyes and wonders if the world still exists, to which the all too obvious answer is “Duh.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W-fFJmuD4B..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W-fFJmuD4B..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">At the very least I suppose those words mean that we can’t escape the visual, though I’m not sure why we’d want to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UEp9vR6_K0..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UEp9vR6_K0..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And of course there’s a double bluff going on here, in that Joyce’s novel is transforming a visual experience (though obviously not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> a visual experience) into a verbal one, into a text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I often think, as I walk in the world, that the separation between the verbal and the visual is largely a false one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rCZSBSYNAX..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rCZSBSYNAX..." width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m a writer and I love words, but a lot of the time I write about what I see. And occasionally I take a photograph to capture details that I might otherwise forget, even as I accept that taking the photograph changes the nature of forgetting and remembering.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EsFQt6xdKg..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EsFQt6xdKg..." width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fact is, the world I see when I’m walking is full of language, visible language, words in a landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cities seem to be full of fragmented poetry and prose, right there on the wall or the floor, and very occasionally up in the sky. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lUx-YWHsVK..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lUx-YWHsVK..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This isn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why </i>I walk, but it definitely makes the experience of walking all the more worthwhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes I wonder if language is ineluctable.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iLovj9jJhe..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="427" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iLovj9jJhe..." width="640" /></a></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on May 10, 2016 19:01

A DAY LATE FOR PYNCHON IN PUBLIC DAY

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Published on May 09, 2016 14:16

MEANDERING WITH MARX

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Published on May 02, 2016 10:08

SOME BENCHES

<span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Of course I noticed this a while ago on one of my daily walk, but I’d never got around to photographing the bench’s </span>absence (for obvious reasons).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even as a bit of negative space I realize it’s not much of a picture, but here’s the beauty part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until I tried to photograph the absence of the bench I hadn’t noticed the presence of that shiny new, white, replacement wooden fence behind it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNORVALxSZ..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNORVALxSZ..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Walking: I do believe it sharpens up the powers of observation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But sometimes you need a nudge.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j9jKSM1jAq..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j9jKSM1jAq..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <style><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on April 26, 2016 20:19

DAWDLING WITH DORIS

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Geneva; panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:7 0 0 0 147 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vmQJe5-tAk..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vmQJe5-tAk..." width="486" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> So Doris Roberts has died, the “mother in law in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Everybody Loves Raymond</i>,” as she was generally known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was aged 90 so it was hardly premature but I’m still very sorry to see her go.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WHjO9zoAv0..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WHjO9zoAv0..." width="430" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The great and improbable thing about her performance in “Raymond” was that if anybody had behaved in real life the way she behaved in the show you would have truly despised and wanted to kill her, but within the show, even as the behavior still seemed both completely believable and despicable, you came away with a great fondness for her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GMPjpfsyJf..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GMPjpfsyJf..." width="424" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I didn’t know much about Doris Roberts except for that show, but I gather she’s been in a great many TV shows and movies including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Remington Steele</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Honeymoon Killers</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the latter she played Bunny.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a4D6FM95Hz..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a4D6FM95Hz..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Since I didn’t know much about her, I obviously didn’t know that she was a walker but it seems she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The LA Times obituary has this quotation from a 2000 interview with her:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Sometimes what I do for fun with friends is go on a ramble … My life is always planned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you ramble you choose north, south, east or west and you just go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when you see something you like, you stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could be anything – a flea market, a restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you don’t like it you can just leave.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-25vQQupYY0..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-25vQQupYY0..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not just a rambler, but a psychogeographer!</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on April 20, 2016 09:28

PERAMBULATING WITH PEVSNER

I’ve been reading Susie Harries’ book Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life – it’s dead good. Of course, the books in Pevsner’s Buildings of England contain “perambulations,” self-guided routes that enable you to walk round a place and look at the architecture Pevsner found worthy of attention. So it’s no surprise to anybody that he was a great walker.

Even so I was quite tickled by the above photograph in the book, which is captioned, “The Professor in Mufti: Pevsner with Lola and two of their grandchildren on holiday in the Tyrol, 1961. In Who’s Who he listed his recreation as ‘twelve-mile walks’.”

When Pevsner first wrote about the buildings of London he divided the place into two volumes, one for Westminster and the City, and one for the rest. This caused some amusing consternation among the staff at Penguin. Editor Alan Glover (who according to Harries and other sources had once worked as a tattooed man in a circus) wrote, “I can only say that if I were walking from Charing Cross to the Bank making a rapid study of architecture I should be a bit disturbed at having to carry one fat volume in my right-hand trousers pocket and another fat volume in my left, and as you may have observed I am not over-particular about the set of my trousers.”

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Published on April 14, 2016 09:37

WALKING BOOKISHLY

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Geneva; panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:7 0 0 0 147 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Helvetica Neue"; panose-1:2 0 5 3 0 0 0 2 0 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-2147483545 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nQypaLKYND..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nQypaLKYND..." width="640" /></a> </span><br /><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So I went to the Los Angeles Times Book Fair at the weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes place these days on the University of Southern California campus – a big old spread – 226 acres, so it turns into a walking experience whether you want it to or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VfS70e55G6..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VfS70e55G6..." width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You see crowds of people wandering aimlessly, some cheerfully, some less so, and some of them may actually be heading for lecture halls and panel discussions - the line for the Henry Winkler signing was quite long, though not nearly as long as the line for the stand where they were giving away free frozen yoghurt - but the sense I get yesterday was that there were a lot of lost souls, walking, ambling, looking for something, though they didn’t know what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rlRvHc-ZGx..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="632" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rlRvHc-ZGx..." width="640" /></a><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And that’s just fine by me – and with psychogeographers too - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a chance to drift without knowing what you’re going to find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also suspect that what a lot of people were doing was just walking around looking at all the other people walking around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure this really constitutes a bookish experience, unless of course you write a book about it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ki7pAM2smD..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="618" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ki7pAM2smD..." width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Pico Iyer was there, as he usually is – on the Travel Stage - and I stopped to listen for a bit, but all the seats were taken and I always think that standing still for an hour is much, much harder than walking for a hour, so I didn’t stay till the end, but I did remember a quotation of Iyer’s, “</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have had long periods of owning cars, interspersed with periods of not owning a car – and you know, I somehow always managed to find plenty of things to worry about.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Orn68GPmd9..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="518" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Orn68GPmd9..." width="640" /></a></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on April 11, 2016 11:07

DAMN

"Hell's Pedestrians" - why didn't I think of that? Sounds like the kind of thing I might have
thought of.

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Published on April 08, 2016 18:55

TRACKING

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mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">First there was this guy:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RS46vuhq8m..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RS46vuhq8m..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And then there was this guy:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7hiqv8Vbot..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7hiqv8Vbot..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And then there were these girls who probably weren’t aware of their filmic predecessors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I wonder if they were aware of the timetable and knew when the next train was coming:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nscOzDK5y2..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="630" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nscOzDK5y2..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And then there were these 5000 people in Tokyo at the end of 2015:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lHl0jDgzV-..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lHl0jDgzV-..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">At 8 am on November 16<sup>th</sup> an overhead cable broke on the Japan Railways Kobe Line between Kobe and Motomachi Stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train service was suspended while a repair crew got to work, and 5,000 or so passengers had to leave the train, and walk along the tracks to the nearest station.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They weren’t in danger, but even so it’s hard to imagine the commuters of most nations remaining so calm, and obeying instructions, and walking in single-file.</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> And at some point an employee of Japan Railways arrived, to apologize and give a bottle of tea to each person who walked by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He opened the bottles for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure why I find this so moving, but I do. </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on March 31, 2016 10:08

LOST IN THE MISTRANSLATION

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here’s Beryl Markham writing in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">West With The Night, </i>1942, which is a book about her travels in what was then British East Africa, now Kenya.</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“A map says to you, ‘Read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not.’ It says, ‘I am the earth in the palm of your hand. Without me, you are alone and lost.’”</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7fVBSA-W7O..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7fVBSA-W7O..." width="550" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Safe to say that Beryl Markham never went to Tokyo, but I just did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I walked a lot while I was there and most of the time I was carrying and frequently consulting a map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike Ms. Markham I didn’t feel as though I had the earth in the palm of my hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mostly I felt as though I was carrying a rather useless piece of paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, of course, I was also consulting a rather useless graphic on a cell phone screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True, given the dense population of Tokyo, was rarely alone, but a lot of the time I was lost.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-frhRMFeNYk..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="548" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-frhRMFeNYk..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">To be honest, only rarely was I completely and utterly, irredeemably lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the time I had some rough, nebulous idea of where I was, and I’m enough of a psychogeographer to find that experience interesting, even desirable, but getting from where I was to where I wanted to be was (let’s say) challenging, and often confusing and ultimately downright exhausting.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Roland Barthes had something to say about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Empire of Signs </i>he writes, of Tokyo, “This city can be known only by an activity of an ethnographic kind: you must orient yourself in it not by book, by address, but by walking, by sight, by habit, by experience; here every discovery is intense and fragile, it can be repeated or recovered only by memory of the trace it has left in you: to visit a place for the first time is thereby to begin to write it: the address not being written, it must establish its own writing.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--y-6Gq58YX..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--y-6Gq58YX..." width="442" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not completely sure about that, Roland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one thing I would say that by no means every discovery in Tokyo is fragile; many of them are extremely robust, but they’re intense certainly,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still does Barthes make Tokyo sound like my kind of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L00yzcF9IS..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L00yzcF9IS..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I walked in Tokyo, I walked a lot, in Shinjuku and Akihabara, in Ueno and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yanesen and Roppongi Hills, and it was very alien in some ways, surprisingly familiar in others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean we’ve all seen those pictures of the big bustling neon lit main streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> if we’ve seen the photographs of Araki and Moriyama then we’ve seen the back streets and alleys too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fsFEhA72i1..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fsFEhA72i1..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These images were accurate enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was rather more enchanted with the alleys than the main streets, and of course we’re always told how safe Tokyo is. I wasn’t taking anything for granted but I was probably less guarded as I walked around the edgelands of Tokyo than I might have been in some other cities.</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I took a couple of maps with me, but once I got there I kept picking up dozens of the things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They seemed to be everywhere.</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some, of course, were just tourist maps whose main reason for existing wasn’t to help travelers go wherever they pleased, so much as direct them to some very specific places, i.e. the businesses that had paid to have advertisements on the back of these maps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a plain enough illustration that maps are always in somebody’s interest, and that these interests may not necessarily be the same as yours, though of course if you’re looking for a sushi restaurant then these interests may coincide. Here's part of the collection:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dWs7U6Ef_G..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dWs7U6Ef_G..." width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There were also a lot of public maps, on street corners, in parks, in stations, even sometimes in the sidewalk.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_J4NBczUCM..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_J4NBczUCM..." width="598" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vc0ZUuYUzR..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vc0ZUuYUzR..." width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And I did find it some consolation that as I walked I saw many locals who seemed as lost as I was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They too stared at those street corner maps with as much confusion as I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d also see them staring at maps on their cell phones, sometimes using the cell phone to photograph the street corner map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made me feel just slightly less of a buffoon.</span> </div><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LYR35muzAj..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LYR35muzAj..." width="604" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div></span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There were also these helpful signs directing you to places where you could cross the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m an observer of these things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have photographs taken in Suffolk, in England only a few years back in which the walking man is wearing flared trousers, and here the walking man was wearing a hat:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1QipfdmBmu..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1QipfdmBmu..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The parts of Tokyo I was in weren’t absolutely, completely free of graffiti, but by any standard I know they were very limited, and such street art as there was seemed very minor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know if this means Tokyo really needs Banksy or whether they’d just throw him in jail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DyKaPPIm7l..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DyKaPPIm7l..." width="640" /></a></div></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But oddly enough those street crossing signs were quite a target for low level doodling and stickering and general abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t worked out why that is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s because of the hat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ueSKvsA-n7..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ueSKvsA-n7..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tokyo, certainly to a first timer, though I’d imagine to anyone, seems to be a place of strange and complex and often mysterious spaces, some are big and broad and strangely empty, elsewhere there are tiny alleyways and gaps between buildings that are barely wide enough for a human being to walk through, though the cats seems to like those places just fine.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uIclQ4Snyo..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uIclQ4Snyo..." width="480" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And there are certain spaces, under freeways or bridges or railway lines that do feel strangely different from their western equivalents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the west they might be considered non-spaces, but in Tokyo they seem much more part of the fabric of the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that’s because there are so many of them that if you thought of them as non-place then you’d have to think of much of the city as a blank.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I walked reasonably far and reasonably wide, though I could certainly have walked further and wider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the walking was not quite aimless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally I was trying to get somewhere, say to a gallery or bookshop or bar or restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More often than not I got there, but not absolutely always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still I was well prepared for serendipity, and that I found in spades.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R8FEBkzlQc..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R8FEBkzlQc..." width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6OH8gcvwuN..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6OH8gcvwuN..." width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0PB74w9gG..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0PB74w9gG..." width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gXnACA2f2_..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gXnACA2f2_..." width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And if nobody was in any doubt that I was a tourist and didn’t belong there, I never sense any hostility, nor frankly much in the way of curiosity about me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe this was an illusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we accept that the Japanese are a very polite race, maybe they were just too polite to express either their hostility or their curiosity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just one old jogger came up to me and me where I was from and how long I’d been in Tokyo, otherwise I was ignored as just another gaijin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was prepared to settle for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rylQkusmpl..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rylQkusmpl..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Since I got back I’ve been reading </span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Barrie Shelton's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Learning from the Japanese City</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He writes,</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> “</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">To a Westerner, the Japanese maps may be seen to fragment the landscape. The Japanese maps are rather like a cubist painting where one can see on a single surface, many aspects of a three-dimensional object which could not be seen from a single static viewpoint. Considered another way, they may be seen to integrate the landscape for they show it, as it is commonly experienced by the majority of those who move through it. In other words, it is more a product of experience than the Western map which is more one of intellect.”</span><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I think I know what he means, though of course I also think you could argue that one of the main duties of a map is to offer information for people who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t </i>have experience of moving through a given landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you “commonly” move through it then why did you need a map?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EqhlVqaIPa..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="508" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EqhlVqaIPa..." width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "geneva"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Shelton also refers to an early eighteenth century map showing the whole of Japan, a map that was 7 inches high and 28 feet long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t seen this map and it doesn’t sound as though Shalton has either, but it sounds a wonderful thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if Ed Ruscha knew about this map when he did his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Every Building on the Sunset Strip</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then and Now).</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, in honor of this concept I did buy the map you see below, by no means as long and thin as the 18<sup>th</sup> century map, but long and thin enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suitable for framing no doubt, but quite a challenge for the framer.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qopdn_ftzo..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qopdn_ftzo..." width="302" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheHol..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

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Published on March 23, 2016 10:35