Google Maps is handy but frustrating because it always assumes at first, when you ask for directions, that you’re in a car. But some of the best entertainment Chicago has to offer is carless—and possibly mapless—because it’s a great city for psychogeography, aka playful and observant drifting on foot through the urban landscape. Simply walk out your front door, and then keep walking: see how far you can go and where you end up by following your intuition for five miles, eight miles, ten miles, twelve. Or take public transit to some distant location and start to walk from there. Flanêrie is meditative, educational, eye-opening and pretty much free.
—Kathleen Rooney, Co-founder, Rose Metal Press (Lit 50)
