It was only the pisspots of the world that made it. The most dangerous places. The unstable countries, the feudal states, the anarchic backwaters, places you wouldn′t dare walk out the door without a gun, where bodyguards were fashion accessories—those places did a lot better in the end.

What good about photography is that we save money on diet pills by going out with a camera, and we don't have potato quality Instagram selfie!

This description, of course, fits most American cities, but in Chicago the fear of air — what might be called aërophobia — was especially acute.

Keda's oldness was the work of fate, alchemy. An occult agedness. A transparent darkness. A broken and mysterious grove. A tragedy, a glory, a decay.