Las Vegas is a man-made paradise, the fallen Adam in the arms of a neon serpent. This is Playland as Eden, essentially infantile, but it entrances many bored people, including lot of foreigners.
Places Quotes
Walking in Karnak was like walking into one of Piranesi’s Prison, solidified suddenly into stone, and grown to natural, nay to heroic size. Piled on fantastic ruin, obelisks pricked the sky; the colossal aisle soared, its base plunged in the deepest shadow, its head lifted to the moon; shafts of light struck the columns, lay […]
There must be something in the Japanese character that saves them from the despair Americans feel in similar throes of consuming. The American, gorging himself on merchandise, develops a sense of guilty self-consciousness; if the Japanese have these doubts they do not show them. Perhaps hesitation is not part of the national character, or perhaps […]
So it goes on mile after mile – Chicago… It was like a prolonged, enlarded mingling of the south side of London with all that is bleak and ugly in the Black Country. It is the most perfect presentation of nineteenth century individualistic industrialism I have ever seen – in its vast, its magnificent squalor; […]
What I am saying is that Spain is a very special country and one must approach it with respect and with his eyes open. He must be fully aware that once he has penetrated the borders he runs the risk of being made prisoner. I believe I sensed this danger on that silvery dawn many […]
Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts.
Ever since Mexico, the description, ‘formerly an important Spanish city, famous for its architecture’ made me stiffen in apprehension, but no city had fallen as far as Lima. Like a violated tomb in which only the sorry mummy of a withered nationalism was left, and just enough religion to console a patient multitude with the […]
Some men are all right in their places – if they only knew the right places!
On the top of Corcovado, a gigantic statue of Jesus, with outstretched arms, dominates the picture. (‘Never has Christ blessed a happier and more lovable brothel,’ as the local saying has it.)
(Chicago) Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.
