Friday, June 26, 2009

New kind of togetherness

People nowadays like to be together not in the old-fashioned way of, say, mingling on the piazza of an Italian Renaissance city, but, instead, huddled together in traffic jams, bus queues, on escalators and so on. It’s a new kind of togetherness which may seem totally alien, but it’s the togetherness of modern technology.
J. G. Ballard

4 comments:

Luísa Santos said...

it does seem very alien... so true... very thoughtful quote and great match.

IstvanBloggin' said...

Glad you like it Luisa.
I agree, it seems that future brings more and more alienation, but i guess it seems practically impossible to be otherwise in huge modern cities.
There's a great quote about that by Phyllis McGinley:"Kindness is a virtue neither modern nor urban. One almost unlearns it in a city. Towns have their own beatitude; they are not unfriendly; they offer a vast and solacing anonymity or an equally vast and solacing gregariousness."
I like the photo very much! Is it New York?

Luísa Santos said...

yes, New York :) have you read 'non-places' by Marc Augé? it's great about this matter of the 'modern city'. it's more an european point of view but still... anyway it's kinda difficult to speak in (accurate) global terms, i guess..

IstvanBloggin' said...

No i haven't, sounds like a great book. I will try to find it here..