courtesy of C. Levin
Episode 2:
Things I think about 4x a week while walking[1]:
My body’s proximity to other bodies when in transit/ transport.
Subsequently: whether I can spread my arms out when in said transit/ transport/ on sidewalk (Los Angeles – I can grow an extra meter of arm given how barren the sidewalks) (Hanoi – barely spread a finger without hitting a passing bike, a parked bike, a tree in use by some shop/ restaurant, etc.) (Paris – abnormal movement strictly prohibited under social contract constipation (keep arms down, parallel to the baguette steaked up your assimilated ass)
Whether a city can be qualified as walkable (Paris) or non-walkable
(Los Angeles) or almost-walkable (Hanoi)
Sidewalks at that!
The material composition maybe even (Los Angeles: hyperbolically non-charming pavement grey, adjacent to duller-than-charcoal black asphalt) (Paris: cobblestone… hypothesis that “fall head over heels” as expression for “fall in love” came from this… you trip and you’re dumbstruck infatuated because man the roads are so fucking sexy) (Hanoi: more so focused on the hopscotch than on the material of partially paved partially in construction partially dirt partially French cobble partially asphalt … here rather emphasis on DON’T TRIP/ mind the million tiny chairs and motorbikes and buckets filled with dirty dishes)
Eye contact when walking
(Paris: stares – le regard parisien, à la fois omnipresent et subtile? Exécution pseudo-sophistiquée) (Hanoi: stares and often head turns – coming from a Westerner’s positionality) (Los Angeles: no stares, no eye contact – if eye contact, imperative choreography of smile and script of “hi! Have a nice day” (something of the sort… detail which often inspires the “Americans are so fake” rhetoric)
Eye contact when walking with sunglasses
Only observed thus far in Los Angeles and Hanoi (Hanoi: curbs stares; my friend told me could be a loss of interest in the eye contact awkwardness/ tension… less fun?) (Los Angeles: funny enough PROMPTS people to look directly at you, eye-level… sunglasses treated as a protective shield against same awkwardness/ tension?)
Trash
A sexy sidenote to pedestrian ponderings (Los Angeles: tri-color bins… within the waste bins, people’s throwaways hidden behind opaque plastic bag white or black) (Paris: there’s the tricolor but also, I always note the public trashes being see-through trash bags in a standing ring of sorts… apparently in link with terror attack prevention? Don’t quote me, just citing the whispers in the wind) (Hanoi: oh I LOVE the trash observations in this city: increasingly I see use of white Styrofoam boxes to centralize the trash that otherwise is placed in tacitly designated curbside spots/ street corners … most are using the mini-plastic bags used for grocery shopping… so trash taken out much more frequently… and given the lack of explicit tri-color sorting system… trash is so … out in the open? I remember after the lunar new year you just saw the remnants of peach blossom tree branches EVERYWHERE).
Sidewalk culture
… no comparison, just something I think about: the great 1930s Vietnamese author Vũ Trọng Phụng wrote extensively of “sidewalk culture”, especially in his most famous work, Số Đở (Dumb Luck)[2]. Highlighting the (often overly) dynamic nature of urban spaces in colonial Hanoi, the sidewalks served as narrow yet vibrant zones where multiple layers of life intersect (social classes, cultures, forms of exchange)– hence the novel’s dialogue chaotically jumping between various conversations and soundbites … a bloody rich tapestry of interactions in a claustrophobic public setting…
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[1] Documenting the world through lists (“things that […]”) inspired by fiction writer/ Zen Buddhist guru Ruth Ozeki, Ozeki inspired by Japanese court lady/ writer Sei Shōnagon and her most famous work, The Pillow Book (Makura no Sōshi) – a collection of eccentric observations/ lists such as “things that make the heart race”
[2] Historical context for Vũ Trọng Phụng’s writing provided by Vietnam historian Peter Zinoman in his introduction to the English translated publication of the novel (translated by Zinoman)
About the Article
Musings on passing objects, thoughts, similarities and differences.
