Chloe, Invisible Cities

"In Chloe, a great City, the people who move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter, they image a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses, bites. But noone greets anyone; eyes locking for a second, then dart away seeking other eyes, never stopping."
".... An exchange of glances like lines that connect one figure with another and draws arrows, stars, triangles, until all combinations are used up in a moment....."
".When people happen to find themselves together, taking shelter from the rain under an arcade, or crowding beneath an awning of the bazaar, or stopping to listen to the band in the square, meetings, seductions, copulations, orgies are consummated among them without a word exchanged, without a finger touching anything, almost without an eye raised"

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, page 51. 1972