I would love a job like this:
“[Airports] express all the things that make the modern world so strange and horrifying and beautiful and exciting. They’re all about interconnection. They’re about technology. They’re about our loss of contact with nature; they’re about consumerism and our dreams of travel. All of this comes to life at the airport.”
Heathrow officials hired de Botton, an occasional NPR contributor, to spend a week at the airport and write about what he sees. The results will be published next month and handed out free to travelers.
Then there’s the Romanian cleaning woman who passes by every day. “She very much wants to be in my book,” he says, “but she says that if I do put her in, she needs all her details changed, because otherwise it would disappoint many of her friends in Romania who think she’s got a brilliant career in classical music.”
9 responses to “Terminal stories”
I LOVE HIM. Alain de Botton makes me not hate philosophy, which means he is a genius.
that’s a really cool project, and an airport is the perfect place to do that. next time i’m sitting waiting for my plane i might have to take note of my surroundings a little more. it’s one of the best places to people watch, no doubt.
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Celeste-
I’m not really familiar with him (except for a TED talk of his I watched and liked) but I’m definitely jealous of his job, haha. I’ll take your word on the genius part.
Mandy-
I dunno why, I tend to people-watch more ON the airplane than in the airport! Either way, it’d be so much cooler with a DESK. ;P
That’s really cool actually, neat idea.
how fun and interesting! I wonder if they’d throw me out if I brought my own desk to the airport?
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You forgot your word count. :)
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K-
I know, I was kind of wondering the same thing! Like, what would they say? It would also be an interesting test of my theory that, in general, if you act like you know what you’re doing, people won’t challenge you.
Eric-
Or maybe I’m hiding it. :P
I’d like to read that book…love the story about the cleaner!
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I know, that was my fave bit too!