"Two days may be enough to start to get acclimatized. The day you find out that the statue of Ludwig Spankerfel di Nominatore (the celebrated brewer) is only three minutes from your hotel (at the end of Prince Adalbert Street) whereas you've been taking a good half-hour to get there, you start to take possession of the town. That doesn't mean you start to inhabit it." (64)
"... the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual ..."
"Describe your street. Describe another street. Compare." (210)
I've been interested in Perec since this, and finally managed to pick something of his up just before going overseas late last year. I've been reading Species of Spaces and Other Places on and off since then. Elegant, reflective, and determinedly grounded in the everyday, the numerous short pieces collected in it have provided much food for thought but, more to the point, have shaded my perspective on things differently at just the time when I've been concentrating anew on opening myself up to the world and taking things as they present themselves, perceptually, intellectually and otherwise.
