Yesterday, I read
an article in the New York Times about boarding houses. It seems that many people are deciding to take in boarders now given the state of the economy. I read excerpts from a turn of the century account (19th/20th) of living in boarding houses. An estimated thirty percent of New Yorkers then resided there. The writer had listed them by categories. Even in its horribleness, the account made them sound interesting if not fun. Communal living. As gated communities have sprung up across the country in the past twenty years, as we have become more and more enamored by exclusivity, as we have built our glory mansions of isolation, as we've turned ever more to the cyberworld for our relationships. . . . Etc. Versus bad food, bed bugs, and cantankerous landlords. Am I nuts?
I think I'll go back and read some
Balzac.
You are nuts -- but not incorrect. My happiest memories are the number of communal living arrangements I had as a dishwasher, janitor, and truck driver.
ReplyDeleteDirt poor, but connected with lots of time to read, think, commune, make love, and even in the boarding houses there are places for silence.
For your reading pleasure
“Vautrin: If generals took their soldiers seriously, not a cannon would be fired! Men possess in their dealings with each other the instincts of savage animals. Once
wounded, one is down-trodden by his fellows. Moreover, to ask the
protection of a world whose laws you have trampled under foot is like returning to a house which you have burnt and whose roof would fall and crush you.!”
From the drama “Vautrin” by Honoré de Balzac
certifiably nuts...
ReplyDeleteOK. I'm seeing it as a Merchant/Ivory film, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI've linked the article now if you want to look at it. Maybe you'll get nuts, too.
yes, I do have this empty basement...hmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteI'm nuts - all I need is a roof over my head in the winter.
ReplyDelete