Reading Response #1

            I found the passages by White, Kazin, Abbey, Didion, Schulman, and Jackson to all have several elements that unify them. The feeling that New York, in general is a scummy, rough-around-the-edges, multicultural, lonely, stifling, desperate, desolate, metropolitan, shining, industrial, metallic, living place was present in all the passages. Yet despite these mostly disparaging qualities, it is loved and looked upon as THE CITY to be in.  The authors not native to New York came searching for something out of a movie, TV show, stories from friends. They found lonely apartments, dirty streets, and unfamiliar places in general. Didion, being from the Midwest was constantly aware of the fact that she was not from New York, and never would be. This was not to say that she didn’t love New York, she loved New York “the way that you love the first person that touches you”.  This feeling of being an outsider is also shared by Abbey, living in Hoboken, not one of the boroughs but always wanting to be a part of the city seen in the distance. To Kazin, a native New Yorker, he felt at home not by the presence of the city and its energy, but by the places and people that held specific memories for him. I identified with this passage the most, living only half an hour away from Manhattan, I have my own set of very specific memories in certain places scattered around the city. He feels he has arrived when he sees the old women sitting on their stoops, sees the old church [the last of it’s kind], walking by the house of a girl he loved.

            In a way, I can also relate to Didion’s piece, in it’s loneliness and how the city can make you crazy if you are not in the right state of mind/attitude. Several summers ago I took a summer class and stayed alone in an apartment in Manhattan. I didn’t know anyone, all my friends were away for the summer, so I was on my own. In my apartment, all I would do was sit in front of the air conditioner and talk on the phone to friends. Walking around the city alone, I felt frantic. This was not because I was unfamiliar with the city and felt lost. I felt overwhelmed by possibilities, unexplored corners.  I wanted to share all the things I saw and felt with someone but those people were gone. Despite all my complaining and self-pity, I enjoyed being alone. Depending on myself for my own sanity was a very different experience, as was being totally alone.