NYC pictorial pt. XVII

Let the Great World Spin

Column McCann is master evoker of the human spirit. I don't really think he's a storyteller, he's more of an analyst of emotion, and boy, does he do it well. In 1974, Phillipe Petit constructs a high wire strung between the two towers of the World Trade Center, and in the early morning hours, he proceeds to walk, dance and even lie down upon it. When questioned why, he said "when I see oranges, I want to juggle them. When I see towers, I want to walk between them." This event becomes the core center of the novel, as different characters, seemingly unconnected, live out their lives while this extraordinary event occurs.

As McCann points out: New York isn't a city that wallows in the past. We don't build many monuments or cherish history the way older European cities do. What we revel in are flash-in-the-pan theatricals. Wild and effusive displays that compel people to marvel and think, "only in New York." To me, this is the most apt description of New York City that I've ever come across. Each of the characters, in their varied struggles, are trying to make more sense of their existences, but really, it's simply a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, balancing on the ever-tricky high wire of life.

Sprawl II

'Cause on the surface the city lights shine
They're calling at me, come and find your kind
Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small
Can we ever get away from the sprawl

NYC pictorial pt. XVI

Kafka on the Shore

"Inside our head...there's a little room where we store these memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library."

This last little bit of this eminently wonderful novel really opened my mind. I've spent so many of these past few months yearning to seclude myself, in effect, to live in a private library, that it didn't occur to me that seclusion of that sort can be unhealthy. If we let our minds root, following the same paths day in an day out, dwelling on the past, letting ideas and emotions grow stale, then we of course can't expect our lives to course-correct. Fate exists, yes, but it's in all of us to wrest our futures into our own making.

This is what this book taught me, and for that, I am deeply indebted.

Kele - Everything You Wanted (RAC Remix)

Kele - Everything You Wanted (RAC Remix)

I write like...

I write like
Stephen King

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