Tell me now, Stephen said – what is a pier.
A pier, sir, Armstrong said. A thing out in the waves. A kind of bridge. Kingstown pier, sir [...]
Kingstown pier, Stephen said. Yes, a disappointed bridge.
James Joyce, Ulysses.
A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.
Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot
