Benjamin read the Paris Métro as a modern underworld of mythic names

Evidence

But there is another system of galleries stretching through Paris, underground: the Métro, where in the evening the lights begin to glow in red, the lights that mark the way into the hell of names. CombatElyséeGeorges VEtienne MarcelSolférinoInvalidesVaugirard have thrown off the shameful chains of Rue', of Place’, and here, in a darkness pierced by lightning, rent by whistle-shrieks, these names have become the misshapen gods of the sewers, the fées of the catacombs. This labyrinth harbours not one, but a dozen blind, charging bulls, into whose jaws not one Theban virgin a year, but thousands of anaemic office-girls and tired shop-assistants must throw themselves every morning. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 832 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Benjamin read the Paris Métro as a capitalist underworld devouring clerical workers daily. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 832

Related

• Benjamin read the Paris Métro as a capitalist underworld devouring clerical workers daily. (similarity 0.92)

Broader Connections

• Benjamin read the Paris Métro as a capitalist underworld devouring clerical workers daily. #expands (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 832