"It is only in a crowd that man can become free of this fear of being touched. That is the only situation in which the fear changes into its opposite… - Elias Canetti

"It is only in a crowd that man can become free of this fear of being touched. That is the only situation in which the fear changes into its opposite. The crowd he needs is the dense crowd, in which body is pressed to body; a crowd, too, whose psychical constitution is also dense, or compact, so that he no longer notices who it is that presses against him. As soon as a man has surrendered himself to the crowd, he ceases to fear its touch. Ideally, all are equal there; no distinctions count. Not even that of sex. The man pressed against him is the same as himself He feels him as he feels himself. Suddenly it is as though everything were happening in one and the same body." (15)

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About Elias Canetti

Elias Canetti (25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994) was a Bulgarian modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Elías Canetti
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Ονειρεύομαι έναν άνθρωπο που ξεμαθαίνει όλες τις γλώσσες της γης, ώσπου να μην καταλαβαίνει σε καμιά χώρα αυτό που λέγεται.

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