While New York is no longer the grimy anarchic dangerous New York of my childhood, there are still glimpses of that old anarchy. Anarchy that is strikingly beautiful. This collage, in Greenwich Village, huddled between two indistinct doorways caught my eye from the corner, as I passed by, on my way to meet Charlie, and I stopped dead in my tracks and had to go back and take a second look. I fell into its beauty, its hodgepodge (Frankenstein!), its collaborative aspect, images pasted on top of images, a collage of time, too – it took time for it to get to its current state, it took a lot of different people.
It represents everything I love about New York. New York has become so generic in a lot of its neighborhoods and Times Square is Dead. It is no longer the Times Square that it should be. Buh-bye. Real New Yorkers stay far away from that hell-hole now.
If you want to see the old New York, the grimy individualist New York, you have to keep your eyes peeled. It’s still everywhere.
Definitely miss that aspect of New York as well and love seeing stuff like this. Are you going to have time check out City on Fire ? The 900 plus pager most of which takes place in and around the city in 1977… I read it and enjoyed it.. Really dead on portrait of the New York of my childhood.
Dg – I have been meaning to read City on Fire. It sounds so so good. That whole era is so fascinating to me – because that was my “introduction” to New York too. I think I first visited here in 1976, and the place was insane – I was a child, but I could feel the danger. It was everywhere.
I’ve not been in a fiction mode recently – the last novel I read was A Little Life – another gigantic New York book (it was excellent) – but I will definitely check out City on Fire!
A Little Life .. That slipped by me…I just read about about it a bit… Seems like I’d have to gird up emotionally before delving into. More than one of the reviews of City on Fire described it as “Dickensian” which is certainly an overused word among critics. Anyway after finishing it I decided to go for the real Mcoy and read Oliver Twist. I’d seen the musical which I know is one of your obsessions and a few other non musical movie versions. Wow the book was fantastic. So dark too. I just started Purity and I’ll let you know how that goes. I think Franzen is to novels these days want the Coen Brotherx are to film… When the new product comes out don’t worry about reviews or anything just read it or see it. There will always be some gems inside.
Oliver Twist!! That was my first Dickens! I love that book!!
A Little Life is brutal – maybe too much so? But it draws you in, undeniably. The author said she wanted to write a story about a brutalized character who does NOT get better. Who does not find hope possible, who does not heal (emotionally or otherwise). Well, she certainly succeeded. But I loved the book. I read it very quickly – mainly because I wanted to finish it as quickly as possible. Very upsetting!
A friend of mine is reading Purity and he is iffy on it. Haven’t read it yet.