New York: A Universe With Infinite Constellations I
New York is a fiction, it cannot be coherently described, it has to be experienced… Vignettes of New York 1–5
New York is a fiction, it cannot be coherently described, it has to be experienced… Vignettes of New York 1–5
“Christian and I became friends in December. I thought it very flattering that he asked me to “join this journey” with him in attempting to represent New York City with words. Christian is a person who lives life to the fullest. I have enjoyed reading and contributing to this narrative of New York City as experienced by two Teachers College students. Christian and I have had a lot of similar and different experiences. One thing we bonded over was student teaching at MMSSIWH. Christian is a creative and comical soul. I will do my best to mimic his form but my words will be peppered with another perspective.”
ONE
I have decided to write a number of vignettes on New York. Some of these are short. Some are mere reflections. Some are stories. Some are feelings. Some are attempts to analyse and make sense of the city. These vignettes are naturally subjective and they contain far too few of the many worlds that make New York. The vignettes do not follow any particular order and can be read in whatever order the reader desires.
I have chosen this format because, in my year here, I have come to see New York as a vast universe comprised of innumerable constellations. An amalgam of all the constellations create this unique city.
Each of these constellations has its personality, its own smells, its own inhabitants, sometimes its own language…what then are we to make of this amalgam?
Like the vignettes that follow, New York, cannot be coherently described, it has to be experienced and each constellation of New York is a distinct experience.
New York only starts to make sense once one has transversed many of the constellations that compose its Universe. Only then do the disparate, unusual, bizarre, entertaining, stimulating, and frightening experiences start to make sense. Likewise, I hope that some kind of meaning or coherence arises from the phantasmagoria of the vignettes that follow.
TWO
New York is a fiction. The city lacks coherence. The boroughs, which used to be separate, now are under the purview of New York. Yet how many Manhattanites visit the other boroughs?
I know people who moved to New York four, five, six and even seven years ago who have never made it to Coney Island. How many citizens of Midtown venture above 140th Street? How many of those living in Washington Heights venture South? Little Italy is covered with signs in Italian and Chinatown is rampant with Chinese signs. How can we think of these different constellations as part of a homogenous universe? We can’t.
New York is a fiction. It is there only in our minds. Like Benedict Andersson’s argument that nations are Imagined Communities so is New York, a city that only exists in our minds.
There is no single lived New York City experience that is the same as another. Therefore there is no reason not to believe heresay from another New Yorker. Please, reader, render our narrative as truth.
Three
New York is, alongside Los Angeles, a foolish city. For in these two cities we observe the range of follies that men and women pursue.
Thousands flock to these two cities, believing in their dreams, hoping to make it big. Inevitably, most fail. How can the city be riddled with so much failure and yet so much hope?
In this aspect New York represents a quintessential human characteristic: that of believing that things will turn out for the best.
Yes! New York conjures images in the minds of other Americans whose perception of this great city is not based in experience. Even in Los Angeles, Angelinos do not conceive of themselves as belonging to one community or as having a similar experience to someone else from the greater Los Angeles area. Native Angelinos only tell others that they are from Los Angeles when they are living in New York. I do not believe it is logical to compare Los Angeles and New York evenly; it is like comparing oranges and apples. Only from the experience of visiting or living in this great city can one believe how someone from Yonkers, someone from Coney Island, someone from Upper West Side, and someone from Bedford-Stuyvesant can all be very different people and live very different experiences. Yet that is not the perception, due to mass media and portrayals of NYC on television such as Sex in the City and Seinfeld. No one would believe that people from different parts of Los Angeles have shared some monolithic Los Angeles experience.
Acknowledgements
This work was completed with a colleague while we both pursued a Masters in the Teaching of Social Studies.
The text in italics was written by my colleague.