the navigators

      Edgar Alan Poe’s “Man of the Crowd” is about a narrator (writer) observing people walking from a coffee shop window in London. He describes in great depth how you can tell the certain “demographics” of the population apart, by either the clothes they’re wearing, the way they’re carrying themselves and how they’re standing apart from the others. Jessica Rodrique (http://jessicarodrigue.blogspot.com/) best described it “and the small details that the narrator uses to distinguish one type from another are photographic.” A line from Poe’s short story “Feeling in solitudes on account of the very denseness of the company around.” For this very reason, living in the city got to me. You would see thousands of people a day and not talk to one. This ties straight into Walter Benjamin’s reading. Public transportation is a common media where you spend minutes (up to an hour, or more) with people with no necessity to talk to them or acknowledge them. Along with that you have the opportunity to be the voyeur, or be looked at yourself. Along with public transportation there are arcades to be added to the public eye. Benjamin cites a poem To a Passer-by “Neither knows where the other goes or lives”

Which is another great example of the anonymous and the voyeur. Here the author (C.F. MacIntyre) is illustrating a narration of a figure who has seen a woman he is possibly interested in, but because of the disconnect and separation that we encounter everyday- this opportunity is lost. 

Look Down/The Robbery A street scene (and song) that I was reminded of in the Benjamin reading when he mentioned Hugo (who rote Les Miserables) ... just ignore that its a wee Jonas brother...

Anonymity of people slowly disappearing: “Photography made it possible for the first time to preserve permanent and unmistakable traces of a human being.” (Benjamin p.48) Although this is about the time when photography was more easily available, its not like you take a photo of ever person you ever see. Thus still keeping the overwhelming feeling of being alone with thousands of people around you.