Sublime

The streets flow with an endless human wash, so many people running like dumbstruck salmon, looking for love, looking for money, looking for a place to eat, wanting for fame, hoping for a place to sleep, hoping for a person to sleep with, praying for meaning in the dark before dawn.

Lucullus-feast

ces banquets où tout répond à la splendeur des lieux, lorsque ces mille magnificences du luxe m'investissent de leur pompe étourdissante, moi qui sors tout rouillé de ma longue frugalité, mes yeux se troublent quelque peu et sont moins à l'épreuve que mon âme. Je m'éloigne alors, sinon moins sage, du moins plus triste, et devant mon chétif mobilier

Essen bedeutet nicht nur Nahrung, nicht nur Genuss. Essen ist Freiheit. Zu kauen und zu schlucken, zu schmecken und sich zu füllen ohne Nachdenken und ohne Reue, aus purer Lust und für den Widerstand. Das gehört zum Wildesten, was eine Frau in dieser Gesellschaft tun kann.

Unfortunately, the loss of treasure and the deep memory of famine may cause us to rationalize that excesses are desirable. And it is, of course, such a relief and a pleasure to finally be able to enjoy sensation ... any sensation.

Everybody was in costume: carnival figures, Russian princes, Chinese merchants, butterflies and bears, fairies and goblins, piping shepherds. Cases of wine were opened, supper was carried out in silver dishes, and the maskers danced on. Scattered groups lingered in the courtyard talking to one another in English or French, often a mixture of the