In 1762 the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau observed that we are
blind half our lives because of what we miss during the night. Yet
we fear the dark, and are led to believe that bad things happen
during the small hours, especially in cities. This is when
insomniacs, psychopaths and photophobics--those who are afraid of
the light--roam the streets; the time when 'normal' people should
be tucked up in their beds. The Elizabethan playwright Thomas
Middleton wrote that there should be 'no occupation but sleepe,
feed, and fart' during night-time hours.Yet there have long been
literary walkers, flaneurs, who have wandered the dark streets of
their cities to uncover the secrets of the night: from Restif de la
Bretonne, in his 1789 Les Nuits de Paris, labelled both eccentric
and pornographic--to Charles Dickens, who in his Night Walks (1861)
evoked the sleeplessness of 'a man who defied the night, with all
its sorrowful thoughts'. As cities became lighter, through the
advance of technology and commerce, the writer's fascination in the
mystery of the night-time city faded. But some cities, restless
metropolises like New York and London, retain their nocturnal
allure.Madrid is one such city. In 2016 writer Ben Stubbs was drawn
to explore the Spanish capital at night like the flaneurs of the
past. He set out when the sun went down to examine the life of the
night in this often-maligned city, a place famed for its late hours
and exuberant nightlife. Exploring the history of everything from
tapas to the new politics of Podemos, he encountered the city's
cultural quirks and clandestine stories while talking to many
Madrilenos who are normally denied a voice in the city.As each hour
of the night unfolds, Stubbs discovers different layers within
Madrid that many visitors do not see as they stick to well-trodden
guidebook itineraries. The deepening darkness reveals
cross-dressing migrants, people who live at the airport, Muslims
celebrating Ramadan, hotel workers hidden in the bowels of the
Ritz, all-night taxi drivers, party-goers enjoying their nightly
marcha from bar to bar, poodle-blessing priests and locals in the
poorer barrios who walk the streets with him to share the
experience of a trasnochador--one who lives during the hours of the
night.Mixing personal observation with literary and historical
references, Stubbs introduces us to a hitherto unknown and
fascinating dimension of Madrid. After Dark reveals a multifaceted
city, full of surprises and possibilities, and very much awake and
alive between dusk and dawn.
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