in the 21st century, democracy was a utopia, that the young american states were achieving on earth, but by the 22nd century that reality had become anachronistic and the dispersion and disorder of those individual states had turned into a memory. [...] we look now with irony, but with admiration, at the enthusiasm of those times. [...] "it's better than watching it on tv," said one eyewitness captured by the cameras—an awed young woman with blue eyes—and her words still move us all. direct experiences were still possible then [...].

                                                                                                            ricardo piglia, a day in the life