The World's Debris (De Certeau)

Just finished reading a chapter in Michel De Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life about walking in the city, and walking in general. It's pretty theoretical (a lot of what came before didn't really sink in) but I really took to this chapter like I've never taken to a chapter in any theory book before. De Certeau argues that the act of taking a step is itself an enunication of the space, a "pedestrian speech act". This act is subversive, working within but against the imposed order of The City by deviating from set paths (taking short cuts, window shopping) and creating its own localized spaces. He draws a parallel between the stylistic figures of spatial creation and myths, which he also sees as something without a known origin and taking its components from pre-existing stories, fragments, etc.

This is all a confusing preamble to two lovely quotations. Much of De Certeau's thinking is sophisticated, but now and then he writes some still-sophisticatd-but-also-fine sentences.

First is a description of graffiti in New York:

"the fleeting images, yellowish-green and metallic blue calligraphies that howl without raising their voices and emblazon themselves on the subterranean passages of the city, 'embroideries' composed of letters and numbers, perfect gestures of violence painted with a pistol, Shivas made of written characters, dancing graphics whose fleeing apparitions are accompanied by the rumble of subway trains." (102)

The second is shorter:

"Stories about places are makeshift things. They are composed of the world's debris" (107).

De Certeau ends the chapter by arguing that the everyday practice of space, of our negotiating space, repeats a childhood experience of moving towards another while simultaneously identifying with the other. Gaston Bachelard is similarly interested in childhood in The Poetics of Space, specifically how the childhood home is the prototypical home that we carry with us for the rest of our lives. Even though De Certeau spends the entire chapter discussing urban spaces (specifically New York City), he ends by tracing it back to the most intimate space of all. I find this an intriguing turn that warrants further thought.