Walk

"The boredom of the voyage is handsomely compensated for by the emotions stirred up on arrival at New york, the most spectacular sight that anyone can see on this earth. The skyscrapers appear grey in the sky which has just cleared and they seem like the ruins of some monstrous New York abandoned three thousand years in the future. Then gradually you make out the colours which are different from any idea you had of them, and a complicated pattern of shapes. Everything is silent and deserted, then the car traffic starts to low. The massive, grey, fin-de-siecle look of the buildings gives New York, as Ollier immediately pointed out, the appearence of a German city." Italo Calvino, 11-9-1959, 'Hermit in Paris' Vintage Books, New York, 2003.

I love this passage. I like the fact that the only comparison he can come up with for New York,is, in fact, New York "three thousand years in the future." Like a dragon eating its own tail. The picture is not illustrative, except of that metaphor (because the moon is waning.)