Week 3

· In “Paris, or Botanzing the Asphalt,” Rebecca Solnit quotes Walter Benjamin who writes, “But to lose oneself in a city — as one loses oneself in a forest — that calls for a quite a different schooling” (p. 255). What is the meaning of “losing oneself in the city?” Have you ever lost yourself in this sense? If so, describe your experience. What do you remember?

I’ve “lost myself” each time I’ve gone to downtown Chicago. Depending on the time of year, I lose myself more times than others. I think to lose yourself in a place means to forget about your destination, and truly spend time taking in and enjoying the journey. Each time I walk through downtown, I find myself gaping at the beautiful buildings, a million questions zooming around my head about the architecture of each one. I look around at the diversity that walks the sidewalks with me. I noticed that the city is where the rich meets the poor, where the young meets the old. Around the holiday season, the city is overtaken with beautiful lighting, and sometimes snow to complement the décor. In the summertime, you get to see the gigantic murals spread across the sides of urban buildings. Imagining one or two people working to create a singular piece of work that takes up hundreds of feet does make me question my significance. And sometimes when you get a chance to venture down the lake some, you get to see each building fit together and create a beautiful, not a single piece out of place, makes you feel as if you’re not just person, but a piece of something greater. (211)

• In Turnbull’s article, “Handheld Time Machines,” he often includes some variation on the sentence, “They disregard me.” What is the significance of this phrase? What is the meaning of “disregard” and “regard?” How does “disregarding” relate to Solnit’s descriptions of the solitary urban walker, including the flaneur, psychogeographer, and drifter?

To be a flaneur or drifter, you must be separate from your surroundings. You must create a distance that allows you simply observe, yet never interact. In Turnbull’s instance, he is never interacting with the things or the people he is writing about. No conversation is happening, there is just simple descriptions of what he is seeing unfolded in front of him. To observe your environment without interacting with it, this is what disregarding is in terms of Solnit’s ideas and Turnbull’s execution of his documentation of his walk. To be disregarded is harder than one would think. If I were in Turnbull’s place, I would’ve waved at the red-haired girl he made eye contact with, and laughed with the bride that had slipped. It was interesting to see all of the different things he decided to take note of during his walk. He chose to use an old map from 1901 and explore the areas that still existed, and actively updating on the decibel level of his surroundings and the temperature. I’m curious as to why he believed those were significant to document. (184)