Reading response:

• Why are “haunted places” the “only ones people can live in” (p. 108)? This is a metaphor, many places are so full of memories and objects that bring memories back. When people walk through these cities all their memories come back to life, just like ghosts. If people were to walk through places where there is no memories they would just feel lonely and walk at a fast paced without stopping to appreciate what is going on around them. Also just like ghosts no one can really see them. I can be walking through a busy street, and other people around me don’t see what I’m seeing which is the tree in the corner that remind me of the time I fell off a tree, they only see me walking alone in a busy street or they see their own memory that I don’t know about. Cities are hunted by memories and stories that multiple people don’t even begin to think about. And these memories are what make cities human and meaningful.(159)
• Why does de Certeau begin a chapter titled “Walking in the City” at the top of the World Trade Center in Manhattan (p. 91)? I think Certeau begins the chapter “Walking in the city” at the top of the World Trade Center and not walking is because he is trying to be a voyeur he is getting to see the whole landscape of the city from a different perspective rather than just observing what is at plain eyesight while walking. He is being able to interpret other things by looking at the city from higher up. Also while he is at the top of the World Trade Center he is fully aware of what he is thinking about, of what he is analyzing and appreciating, when people are walking they tend to lose themselves and lose the opportunity to stop and appreciate what is around them. Once he goes out in the street he says “History begins at ground level”, this is now him trying to interpret things from a different perspective and understanding his own city. (153)