writers

writers are people who write books not out of poverty but out of dissatisfaction with the books they could afford but do not like.

The Chinese Person

Walter in an essay on Franz describes the Chinese person thus:- In China the inner person is almost characterless. It is something quite other than character that distinguishes the Chinese individual; a wholly elemental purity of Feeling.

Walter and Prostitutes

Walter loved to write about prostitutes. A vast proportion of The Arcades Project is Walter writing about prostitution in the arcades. In 'Picturing Proust' when trying to explain Proust's inventive and elaborate writing style and mirroring a story told by Proust about how to locate an address at night wherein Proust gives every detail but the address, Walter writes "try locating the address of a brothel in a foreign city, even if you have been given the most long winded instructions (excepting only the name of the street and the number of the house) and you will understand what is meant here." Yeah, I think we can guess how Walter spent his evenings when visiting all those foreign cities.

Taipei Simulacrum

I have a horror of simulation. Taipei is awash with it. Simulation of its own past. Whilst what little remains of its real past languishes undisturbed and ignored in quiet corners. You could actually believe they would tear down the real past to build a lovely new recreation. And it would prove to be really popular. Take today, we wander around the Shihida area where we find loads of Japan era houses ignored and falling to pieces in back streets. Meanwhile people flock to the disneyfied recreations which litter the cities shopping areas.

The Kaohshiung Arcades Project