"Quiet had fallen; before streetlights, most people were indoors by dark." (p. 60)
Presumably they were. At least that is a sound inference.
"Mental map or no, it wasn't easy finding your way with neither lamps nor signs. Everard lost his a couple of times, and cursed." (p. 63)
We banish darkness with electric light. How much difference has this made to human consciousness by ending superstition and fear of the unknown?
"'...the ghosts of night-bound peoples evaporate from their mythologies as soon as they're able to produce light even at midnight simply by tripping a switch.'"
-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-506 AT CHAPTER THREE, p. 507.
I had to trek upstairs to find that Blish quote but it was worth the effort.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree, night-time street lighting has not banished all superstition. Far too many still believe in nonsense like astrology, the enneagram, crystals, or "spiritualism."
Ad astra! Sean
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