"What the road really was, she fancied, was this hypodermic needle, inserted somewhere ahead into the vein of a freeway, a vein nourishing the mainliner L.A., keeping it happy, coherent, protected from pain, or whatever passes, within a city, for pain."
Who the hell writes like that? I mean who, other than an account planner, of course.
The city, a collective vision made manifest by sheer pluck and will, a beast we ourselves birthed all the while oblivious to the nature of our progeny.
When we were cast from The Garden, were we cast into urbanization? And if so, is urbanization a natural byproduct of being fertile, increasing in number, filling the earth and being its master?
No matter the behavioral model to which one subscribes, on the surface much of our behavior can be explained by the desire to maximize the joys and safety of our social groups. That said, urbanization must at least in part be an attempt to facilitate the joy and safety instincts. We live closer to to our social groups in cities which facilitates communication, indulging in mutual joys, as well as defending one another from outsiders.
But cities are more than the sum of the social groups that dwell within its borders. Cities themselves are beings with their own instinct for joy and protection. Consider the pride a city takes in cultivating a unique culture, touting its one-of-kind attractions, promoting its distinctive 'feel and energy.' Consider the autumnal World Series gladiators half of whom return to a hero's welcome, the other half to jeers of dishonor.
Urbanization is more than the byproduct of the maximization of joy and safety. There is a herd behavior at work that draws us to cities often at the expense of drawing us out of our safety zones. It's as if the architypes of the journey - Odysseus - have been replaced the architype of the city outsiders who overcomes the trials necessary to survive in the modern metropolis. It is always difficult for this hero, who inevitably faces affronts to his very moral fibre on which his urban survial depends.
And this is what passes for pain in the city, the choice between what is right, and what is urban. This pain is what runs through the hypodermic needle that feeds "into the vein of a freeway" that feeds into a city keeping it happy, keeping it content.
The quotation above is from Thomas Pynchon's 'The Crying of Lot 49' and this is a blog about account planning. I haven't quite figured out the connection yet, but I will in the coming weeks
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