A literary universe

Barcelona's exciting literary experience stems from a space-time relation. This city has materialized the best of its past, making of Barcelona an imaginary space full of barricades, absinthe whores, Gaudís, ethical sufferings, flippant rich persons, solid poor ones, occupants, occupied, humiliated persons and offended ones too. It is a setting full of small, close-up wonders, just twenty minutes away from Robadors Street's absinthe whores are the Els Jardinets' gentlemen of the Paseo de Gràcia. All of it lived in 150 years of history, years which had a bit of everything and during which everything happened on working days and, on Sundays, we all headed to Las Ramblas to pose for Georges Sand or Theophile Gautier throughout the long 19th century or for television channels avid for Olympic moments in the, according to Hobsbawm, extremely brief 20th century. There is still something left of that city, which was once literary and now is only postmodern.