Lost in the City
One of my favorite words is anomie. Of French origin, I think, anomie means a lack of purpose or morals. For some reason, and I'd love clarification, I've thought the word explains the sense of feeling alone when surrounded by lots of people. (Dictionary.com says something else entirely). The scene in the AmEx commercial where DeNiro is walking town a stark New York City street, surrounded by cabs, delivery folks, Wall Street types evokes this word. Surrounded, but alone.
I love that feeling.
In New York last weekend I absolutely relished knowing that NO ONE knew who i was, or cared. (Ego check: I am not that popular of a person.) No one would stop to say hi, or anything. 125th carried on about it's business paying nobody no nevermind, except the po-pos who sent the DVD-hustlas scrambling. Both knew that was gonna happen, and the street sign turned to walk again.
Chocolate City is not so stark. Not so self-indulgent. Lots of folks speak, say hi, chit-chat it up. And you never really feel unknown. Or at least I don't.
Yet I'd like to. I'd like to be able to disappear for a while into the unpredictable, I'd like to cop a stoic visage and move through the city's shadows, observe without being seen. (I remind myself I am not that popular of a person, but am someone who engages with others on the street, in Au Bon Pain, in Starbucks.) I'd like to try not knowing this place so well, and seeing what happens.
Being unknown is freeing.
I love that feeling.
In New York last weekend I absolutely relished knowing that NO ONE knew who i was, or cared. (Ego check: I am not that popular of a person.) No one would stop to say hi, or anything. 125th carried on about it's business paying nobody no nevermind, except the po-pos who sent the DVD-hustlas scrambling. Both knew that was gonna happen, and the street sign turned to walk again.
Chocolate City is not so stark. Not so self-indulgent. Lots of folks speak, say hi, chit-chat it up. And you never really feel unknown. Or at least I don't.
Yet I'd like to. I'd like to be able to disappear for a while into the unpredictable, I'd like to cop a stoic visage and move through the city's shadows, observe without being seen. (I remind myself I am not that popular of a person, but am someone who engages with others on the street, in Au Bon Pain, in Starbucks.) I'd like to try not knowing this place so well, and seeing what happens.
Being unknown is freeing.
posted by Rhonda Henderson at 11:06 AM
3 Comments:
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Don't know if I necessarly want to disappear, but I do know that I often have this intense desire to step back and just observe the spectacle sometimes (to move throughout the city without anyone knowing that I am a keen and perceptive pedestrian, an urban semiotic detective). New York and D.C. are both perfect places for that, although the former is the ideal environment for fantastic observation. Though D.C. is pretty thick itself, with everyone moving at this hyperspeed, getting to work or to the next socio-political event or even just rushing to the Whole Fields to buy some organic cashews. Gazing is the key -- there is so much to learn from this grand spectacle if we just take a moment to watch how it all comes together in this chaotic erruption of urban life. You do have to be removed to witness it though, otherwise you get caught up in the current, sucked into the vortex of over development, mass construction, delcared-open-handed gentrification, petty and gross crime, speeding luxury cars, trendy botiques, broken public schools, gifted yet troubled youth, the list goes on and on. Invisibility, not necessairly........ (we have been invisible too long in this society, our days of being invisible wo/men are over) temporary disassociation (which sounds like a psychological affliction).......maybe a better choice, at least for me. Maybe it sounds like I want to be a psychotic bum, but its not like the circumstances of homelessness, no where near as tragic but maybe just as complex. Its movement in, throughout, and around the urban space but with an approach of leisure and an antisocial bent. No words spoken, maybe a smile here or there at a pretty face, a nod of recognition to the brother selling the Kanye CD -- but generally all contact is left to a minimum. The task is visual stimulation and analysis. The freedom is evident through the observational understanding -- the beauty of chaos, the complexity of the urban, the love and admiration for our Ciudad du Chocolat. All done from the peripheral, which is a place difficult to inhabit for long.........Chocolat is addictive plus its good for the soul.
All the best fellow urbanite,
WARIII
P.S. Sweet blogg. I appreciate your unique take on life here in the Big KISS.
Feeling inspired but getting tired -- more food for thought........
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Anomie, in contemporary English, means the absence of any kind of rule, law, principle or order.
The word comes from Greek a-: "without", and nomos: "law". This term was used by the Greeks to define anything or anyone who was against the rules or a condition where the present laws were not applied (illegitimacy, unlawfulness). The contemporary English understanding of the word Anomie differs from how the term was originally defined and used by Greeks and tends to become a synonym of the word Αναρχία (see Anarchy). In Greek there is a difference between the word "nomos" (νόμος)(law), and the word "arché" (Αρχή)(starting rule, axiom, principle). For example, majority rule is an "arché" and not a "nomos".
All the best,
WARIII
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