The Metropolis, choking in garbage, burning in flames; with her breathtaking buildings of the dying Babylon, her graffitied subway-trains, free citizens, black people and orthodox Jews, the capital of the existing but unwanted empire.

If you can stand the tropical summer, the crude violence, the empty faces, the unveiled money-battle, the Soho snobbery, the total authority of the Market, you can manage your fate, which is the only tradition here.