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In Praise of the Flâneur (2013)
- trylfthsk 6y agoThere's an emotion I find directly adjacent to flâneur imagery: Contentedness of being in a restaurant during (typically) business hours (say, eating at 10am or 2pm), enjoying being alone in a public space while society is busy elsewhere, etc. Not so much a feeling of idleness, but rather being out of sync with society mixed with the joys of playing hooky. I suppose "flâneurishness" is the closest I can get to a satisfying descriptor, unless there's some brilliant bit of English that has captured the idea already.
- neilparikh 6y agoThis is a feeling I really enjoy as well. Reading in a mostly empty cafe or library in the early afternoon on a weekday is such a great feeling. I'm glad that there are others who also enjoy this.
- Kaibeezy 6y agoFor me it was called “being in grad school”. See you at the Hungarian Pastry Shop.
- gradschoolfail 6y agoI never figured out the equivalent for NYU. My guess is they segregate their professorial and graduate flaneurs.
- Kaibeezy 6y agoThe Strand? Waverly Diner?
- gradschoolfail 6y agoAppreciate the diner tip! Will check out also Village Taverna as well as The Greek (for the michelin-*ed non-Taleb options).
- readflaggedcomm 6y agoHe suggests flânerie to revisit the old internet, suggesting that's how we used it. But are enthusiasts working for their own fun on the spectrum between getting-things-done and strolling? Joy in creation can be anywhere in there.
- Kaibeezy 6y agoMy sense is there’s a lot of it out there, but it’s buried pages down in the search results. It takes sensitivity and knowledge of a subject to pick the gems out of the haystack. I really wonder if there are search parameters that could help sort for what you’re describing.
- readflaggedcomm 6y agoYes, before search engines stopped working so well, perhaps to defeat spam, it was a lot easier to stumble on something valuable. It's sad to think there are kids out there with only a narrow view of the huge web that they can find from a cold search. Before search engines worked well, we had link directories and web rings. Maybe enthusiast-oriented federated or p2p servers will become the same thing. There are already a few Youtubers headed in that way (e.g. EEVblog and Defpom publishing on Lbry). Rebuilding the tree-lined avenues that succumbed to jungle, I guess.
- TurkishPoptart 6y agoInterestingly, this is the word that Nicolas Nassim Taleb always likes to describe himself as. I suppose because he's so keen on noticing and observation, acts that promote a sense of detachment. The Flaneur is detached in some ways, but very much "with it" in others.