You can't see the commas between the houses, which is what makes
reading them so difficult and walking through the streets so tedious.
The sentence in the cities is interminable. But it is fascinating, and
the countryside is deserted by people who were once its sturdy farmers
and now want to see for themselves the admirably tricky text that
everyone is talking about, so hard to follow, most often impossible.
Which is, however, what these stubborn workers try to do, walking
ceaselessly, lapping up the diseases of the sewers and the leprous
facades as they go by, rather than the still elusive meaning: that still
escapes them. Groggy with poverty and fatigue, they wander by the store
windows, occasionally losing their goal, but never their quest... and that's the end of our fine countryside!
Henry Michaux in Slices of Knowledge
