Super high velocity of airplanes and airwaves produces instantaneousness. Places then become placeless. The tyranny of distance, when cultural goods like books and new hairstyles inched across the continent, is in the process of being replaced by a kind of tyranny of proximity. The world has collapsed into a placeless interface, a zone of transit, where everything is instantly available. Place becomes placeless and yet no place is enclosed by its boundaries.
Nothing narrows a person more than travel.
We can travel these days simply by changing the channels. A familiar culture holds you straight like a hardback held by its binding. The blood needs to travel new routes along the spine. Back in Sydney, the blood knew its way, lingered, grew drowsy and fond. When I first left Australia in the early 1970s cultural life was sad, stuck and undelivering.