"An
intoxication comes over the man who
walks long and
aimlessly through the
streets. With each
step, the
walk takes on greater momentum; ever weaker
grow the temptations of
shops, of
bistros, of smiling
women, ever more irresistible the magnetism of the next
streetcorner, of a
distant mass of foliage, of a
street name. Then comes hunger. Our man
wants nothing to do with the myriad
possibilities offered to sate his appetite. Like an ascetic
animal, he flits through
unknown districts - until, utterly
exhausted, he stumbles into his
room, which receives him
coldly and wears a
strange air.
Walter Benjamin,
Arcades Project, Harvard University Press, 2002, 417.
