… we are surrounded by other bodies …
This is from Crowds: The Stadium as a Ritual of Intensity by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (2021):
… We belong to a crowd with our bodies and become in it a part of a relationship to other bodies — a relationship which does not have anything to do with common interests, or with solidarity, or with consensus, but only with bodies.
… No one can move freely in a mass, nor in the standing bleachers, where the bodies almost touch each other without it being a matter of touch at all. No one speaks unnecessarily; everyone focuses exclusively on the playing field, open for whatever unexpected event might happen there. We are alone with our concentration in a mass, yet we presume that our individual reaction to the events of the game will be accompanied by thousands of analogous reactions.
… Being in a crowd means, finally, to be inside in two respects: firstly, because we are surrounded by other bodies, and secondly because of our nearness to the playing field, in the innermost center of the stadium.
My most recent previous post from Gumbrecht’s book is here.
-Julie
Coloring 