Bike Messengers
and the Cult of Human Power
www.Amazon.com
Travis Hugh Culley came to Chicago to work and
live as an artist. He knew he'd have to struggle, but he found that his
struggle meant more than hard work and a taste for poverty. In be-coming
a bike messenger, he found a sense of community and fulfillment and a brotherhood
of like-minded individualists. He rode like a postmodern cowboy across the
city's landscape; he passed like a shadow through its soaring office towers;
he soared like a falcon through the roaring chaos of the multilayered streets
of Chicago. He became an invisible man in society, yet at the same time
its most intimate observer. In one of the most dangerous jobs on dry land,
he found freedom.
In The Immortal Class, Culley takes us in-side the heart
and soul of an urban icon the bicycle messenger. In describing his own
history and those of his peers, he evokes a classic American maverick,
deeply woven into the fabric of society from the pits of squalor to the
highest reaches of power and privilege yet always resolutely, exuberantly
outside. And he celebrates a culture that eschews the motorized vehicle:
the cult of human power.
The Immortal Class, Culley's vivid evocation of a bicycle
messenger's experience and philosophy, sheds a compelling light on the
way human beings relate to one another and to the cities we inhabit. Travis
Hugh Culley's voice is at once earthy and soaringly poetic a Gen-X Tom
Joad at hyperspeed. The Immortal Class is a unique personal and political
narrative of a cyclist's life on the street.
NPR's Noah Adams interviews Culley about maneuvering through the city
and the battle between bikes and cars.
Listen to
Interview (Real Audio)
www.npr.org
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