on wide open spaces (aragon)

Nowadays man no longer wanders through marshlands with his hounds and his bow; other solitudes have provided an outlet to his instinct for freedom. Empty lots of the intellect where the individual may escape social constraints. There, an unsuspected population dwells, heedless of its legend. I see its country houses, its laboratories of pleasure, its hand luggage, its ruses, its pitfalls, its diversions.

- 36, "The Passage de L'Opera," Le Paysan de Paris, Louis Aragon