'An ordinary man can in a day's time travel by train from a dead little town of empty squares, where the sun, the dust, and the wind amuse themselves in silence, to a great capital city bristling with lights, gestures, and street cries. By reading a newspaper the inhabitant of a mountain village can tremble each day with anxiety, following insurrection in China, the London and New York suffragettes, Doctor Carrel, and the heroic dog-sleds of the polar explorers. The timid, sedentary inhabitant of any provincial town can indulge in the intoxication of danger by going to the movies and watching a great hunt in the Congo:' ~ Filippo Tommaso (F.T.) Marinetti, Destruction of Syntax - Imagination without Strings - Words-in-Freedom (June 1913)
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Modern life allows ordinary people to experience global events and danger vicariously through travel and media.
- In plain terms
- Technology lets people in small towns experience the wider world and danger without leaving home.
- What can you take from it?
- Media and travel expand your world beyond your local town.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does vicarious experience count as real?
- How does media change our sense of place?
Another view
It overlooks how this access can also create anxiety or superficial understanding.
More from Alexis Carrel
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