flâneur

Ghosts haunt cities, seeking revenge for the disappeared past | Aeon Essays

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The city, for all its mechanical speed, artificial light and industrialisation, is the most uncanny of human habitats

A train pulls into London Paddington. A disembodied voice announces the name of the station to the passengers onboard. The lights on the doors blink. The voice sounds again. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform. An ocean of people pour out of the carriages. They step over the gap with little thought, but practised instinct. There is a phantasmagoric characteristic to this everyday sight. London’s innumerable ghosts peek out of the minded gap, and are stepped over with little thought – and practised instinct. Most metropolises are overrun with ghosts; from New York to…

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