If clothing is an extension of our private skins to store 
and channel our own heat and energy, housing is a collective 
means of achieving the same end for the family or the group. 
Housing as shelter is an extension of our bodily heat-control 
mechanisms—a collective skin or garment. Cities are an even 
further extension of bodily organs to accommodate the needs 
of large groups. Many readers are familiar with the way in which 
James Joyce organized Ulysses  by assigning the various city 
forms of walls, streets, civic buildings, and media to the various 
bodily organs. Such a parallel between the city and the human 
body enabled Joyce to establish a further parallel between 
ancient Ithaca and modern Dublin, creating a sense of human 
unity in depth, transcending history.

     Baudelaire originally intended to call his Fleurs du Mal, Les  
Limbes , having in mind the city as corporate extensions of our