“Rhythms of Walking: History and presence in a City Street” is an article by a Jo Vergunst. It is a case study about the author’s findings while he recorded the sounds of a street in Aberdeen, Scotland. In this article, the author draws on Lefebvre’s notion of rhythm to contribute to the theorization of embodied space and urban experience(1). From my understanding, the author wanted to find how the temporality of walking, combining past, present and future, is used to incorporate the history of Union street in Aberdeen, into an analysis of the walking practices of those who use it(1). In this essay, I will briefly analyse the main ideas discussed in this article: ‘Rhythm, Gesture, and the Street’(),‘The Familiar and the Hidden’(), and “Walking the mat”.
Rhythm, Gesture and the Street digs into Lefebvre’s concept of rhythm. The author finds that walkers that enter the street immerse in the movement and the sounds of the time of day, week, and year and in different activities as the city develops. The
…show more content…
From my understanding, it was a type of walk that people used to do very well dressed with their partners just as a casual activity. It was also phased out during the 70s. This argues against his initial question about how the temporality of walking and combining past, present and future, is used to incorporate the history of Union Street, because this walk was very important in the past, but is now completely phased out. On the contrary, however, this also agrees with his summary to rhythm, gesture and the street, where he concludes making a rhythm is an inherently creative activity and its contrasts with the repetitive impositions of the typical working day in capitalism are seen. Both these contradictory arguments have made me come to a conclusion that rhythms in walking do incorporate the history of a specific street, but it is also impacted by capital and social changes that occur over
Octavio Paz’s “Identical Time” and Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian” have, in common, a theme of aliveness. They each feature certain individuals as particularly alive in their cities: the old man is alive in the busy dawn of Paz’s Mexico City, and Mr. Mead is alive in the silent night of a future Los Angeles envisioned by Bradbury. The individuals’ aliveness manifests as stillness in “Identical Time” and motion in “The Pedestrian” against the urban backgrounds - signifying, in both, living a human life freely, in the present and nature. Furthermore, in portraying the urban backgrounds as, in contrast to the individuals, dull and lifeless, the two pieces speak together to how cities may diminish and hinder our aliveness and humanity. In “Identical Time,” aliveness is attributed to a state of stillness against the backdrop of constant movement that is Mexico City.
Most people awake to a daily routine, in which they keep eyes dazed staring at the pavement they walk on yet so easily ignore. Usually, these same people go about their business with no more than a passing glance towards their fellow man. However, there is an enigmatic few that are more than mere pawns in the game of existence. They are passionate spectators who take in their surroundings with every sense. They rejoice in the vastness of the electric crowd and become one with it. By all means, these few can be called ‘idle city men’ or, according to Charles Baudelaire’s 1863 essay “The Painter of Modern Life”, they are flâneurs. I believe a worthy example of a man such as this, is the persona in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. He is a flâneur in all ways but one.
Throughout The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, she writes about the city’s change through a ballet dance and movement surrounding her. “In real life, to be sure, something is always going on, the ballet is never at a halt, but the general effect is peaceful and the general tenor even leisurely” (Jacobs 833). This idea of change she discusses and goes in great depth with, portrays just how constant not just a particular city but the world is. She describes every day to be a ballet of some sort; witnessing everyone’s day as they walk down the sidewalk. Even when a corner is turned, seeing so many different face as they all move at different paces and occupy their time in different manners, it all adds to this dance. Everything changing around her and maybe even things not really making sense but despite all of that, still being able to come together and create something no matter what’s being made of it, relates to Growing up Unrented on the Lower East Side by Edmund Berrigan.
KEVIN and FATE are just two examples, the turbulence and unrest of its participants being expressed in a physical manner on London streets. The city can be regarded as both a grounding point and a reflection of the
The sidewalk is a social structure for the people who work and live in it. They are mentors for each other. They play the same role of self-direction and psychological fulfillment of a formal job or family for example; where the society is shrunken on that one sidewalk. They form an informal social organization and social control so they can survive against the outer social system; meanwhile, this social organization organizes property rights and division of labor. Although their life seems deviant, they still practice conventional social practices and norms. Although it might seem that these men are engaged in random behavior, yet there is an organized interaction of norms and goals, and a shared collective self-consciousness from having a shared common history.
The constant rhythm throughout the poem gives it a light beat, like a waltz; the reader feels like s/he is dancing. The rhyme pattern of...
The beat movement was a movement that began in the 1950s and was centered “in the bohemian artist communities” of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York (Britannica). The people part of this movement, often called “beats”, rejected square values and “advocated personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz” and “sex” (Britannica). The beats, in their literature, would openly speak about the presence of things and ideas in society which were not normally spoken about. Throughout the epic novel, Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, it is evident that the beat movement had a major influence on Robbins and the novel as he does this too. This is supported by Robbins’s diverse set of characters, the openness with which he talks
As the sun reflects of glass, it is restoring life into all facets of Sarajevo, including its citizens, its streets and its wildlife. The beautiful city of Sarajevo is reborn as the small pieces of civilization, symbolized by cobblestones, are aligned. Sarajevans stand up taller as they rediscover their pride in themselves, others and their city. Their health improves and they put on weight and regain colour as a direct result of accessible nourishment. By listening to the cellist, Kenan realizes he is still hopeful for a dramatic change in Sarajevo’s environment. However, Dragan experiences the music differently and sees small improvements in the city. Dragan is a middle aged man who exercises extreme caution when crossing the streets on his way to get bread from the bakery. As he waits to cross a street, he meets Emina, a friend of his wife’s, and they discuss life during the Siege. Dragan notices Emina’s confidence and remarks, “I don’t know how the idea of being shot or blown apart doesn’t scare you,” (125) to which she replies, “There is a man playing the cello in the street” (125). She says, “I don’t know the piece he plays, what its name is. It’s a sad tune. But it doesn’t make me sad” (125). She finds comfort in the unfamiliar melody, which inspires her to rebel against the unfair restrictions inflicted upon her
As our text states, “the converging lines of the pavement connect the action in the foreground
The Street exemplifies an unyielding, and captivating society jumbled with multiple roles that distract the reader from honing in on one person. Hughes regards the majority of Balthus’s themes to be defined within a meticulous and peculiar setting (Marks 49). In accordance to the order of the stanzas, the reader is introduced to the central figure within Balthus’ painting. The carpenter’s stark white clothing, ironically contradicts the story Dobyns infers. The blue collared wo...
The verb "wanders" connotes contemplative walking without specific destination through streets that are described as "chartered". But the word "street" is ambiguous. While it could be the home of people, a neighborhood and a place for emotional refuge, the streets and the river Thames are "chartered"; they are defined as commercial entities where business and cold cash dominates. The scene is set in which the poet sees the unhappy citizens of London. Their faces reflect the common man's physical and spiritual suffering through "marks of weakness, marks of woes". The repetition of the...
“In this poem, the night represents his destination — the poet’s own inner life, possibly self-knowledge. The poet, then, feels at least partially alienated from himself in much the same way that the night promotes a feeling of alienation from other people” (Kidd 2). Therefore, the reader can assume this rest of the poem is going to be about the narrator getting to know his place in this world while he is on a night stroll. The second line of stanza one states “I have walked out in rain –and back in rain” (Frost 157). His repetition of going in the rain twice emphasizes his miserable condition on this dark, rainy night. Nonetheless, he embraces nature and continues on with his walk past “the furthest city light” which tells the reader that he is now in complete darkness. Stanza two focuses primarily on his relationship with society. The narrator is casually walking in the city at night and sees the “saddest city lane” and
The documentary “Rize” by David LaChapelle, focuses on the lives of Black Americans who live in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles they go through in their daily lives. Moreover the film also introduces two types of dancing groups that they have in the community. These dance groups are meant to keep the youths and children occupied and distracted from all the problems that have been going on in their community, such as the LA riot. The two styles of dancing are Clowning and Krumping. Clowning was created by Tommy the Clown in 1992. Tommy used to be a formal drug dealer, he went from having his life together to losing all his money and house. However, instead of doing nothing productive with his life, he decided to help his community by changing the lives of others through entertainment. In addition, not only did this dancing group help him get to a better place in life but also the group members are like his family. His main goal was to help put similes on people’s faces and help get some of these children and youths away from gangs. On the other hand, Krumping was also generated from Clowning, however Krumpers believe that their form of entertainment is different from clowning. Moreover, these dancing groups main focus is to distract the youths and children in the community by giving them the opportunity to do something they love, which is dancing. Furthermore, passion, spiritual connections and connection to the African culture are conveyed through the film by Clowning and Krumping.
Fear in general drives human beings to be alert of the dangers surrounding us. A woman’s fear could easily be driven by a man just because he is simply a man. In our society we have painted the picture that as women we should be careful when we walk by ourselves at night and we should always be on alert with a weapon ready in hand. A recent study conducted in Canada proved that women were “three times more likely than men to be afraid when walking alone after dark.” (Women against Violence against Women, 2015). Though on one hand our mass media and culture have had an influence to stereotype men to play the “antagonist” when it comes to women walking home alone at night.
The street is quiet, and seems like it is dead. The sounds I can hear are the leaves rustling in the breeze, and the pitter-patter sounds of raindrops falling on the ground. Together, they compose a brilliant song of nature. No din from the high-school students, no irritating noise from the car. No one, not even a soul dares to make a sound to disturb this moment. Everything is silent, as if it isn’t even alive, just like a ghost street that only emerges in the mid-night and will vanish when the first sunlight strikes down from the sky. Wet dirt mixes with the smells of perfumes that left behind by people suffuse the air. Making me think of the mixture of sodas and expired apple juices.