Tag Archives: Flânerie

Finding a Flaneur in “The Moviegoer”

Certification, repetition, rotation, the genie-soul of a place – I found the footsteps of Walter Benjamin and “Return of the Flaneur” throughout The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. No sooner had we finished reading it than I wanted to start all over again at the beginning, ready to annotate the text to make my case. Continue reading






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Listening for The First Song of Spring

After 12 days of snow cover and subfreezing temperatures, I’ll take any sign I can get that spring will come. I heard it just before daybreak this morning in the song of a Carolina wren. It’s been around all year, of course, and I hear its call notes every day. But today it sang its strident territorial song for the first time this winter. It’s singing a week earlier than I expected.






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Black Irises: Flânerie in the Garden

Flânerie reaches beyond the street, as Bill Cunningham reveals when he travels to Old Westbury, Long Island for a garden party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the public gardens there. The rhododendrons were in full bloom, and so were the … Continue reading






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