postcoitus’s pillow talk

White, Kazin, Abbey, Didion, and Schulman can be divided into two categories: those who are still intrigued by New York, and those who have become jaded with it. White and Kazin still believe in the good of New York. In “Here is New York,” White sees it as a place where all aspects of life have been compressed and pressurized into one super-intense experience. It does not have just one draw, it has all of them: “art and commerce and sport and religion and entertainment and finance.” White sections New York into three kinds. The first is the New York as seen by its natives. Its size, variety, and uniqueness seen by outsiders are taken for granted by the natives. This is what life is to them. The second is New York as seen by commuters. New York to them is just a place that ends with the blow of the whistle. The third and most important group is the New York as seen by the settlers, the people who have journeyed there to make a new life. The wide-eyed who venture from some small midwestern town, etc. with idealism and passion to start the life they’ve dreamed of. They, White says, are what give New York its life. They are the ones who love New York as if it is their first love. To them, no other place could ever feel more perfect than New York City.

To Kazin, New York is Manhattan. Everything outside of that may as well be just another small town to be escaped. Manhattan is the place of adventure, is what White’s settlers seek. Manhattan is the center of New York’s passion. This idealization of Manhattan causes all other towns, even those in New York, to pale in comparison. After being in the real New York, his world of Brownsville is no longer the same. Manhattan changes the way he sees what was once his home. When he returns, things seem rundown and small; it could never live up to the grandeur of Manhattan.

Abbey bridges the gap between the two groups in “Manhattan Twilight, Hoboken Night.” Like Kazin, Abbey sees New York as only Manhattan. It is the City. Living in Hoboken, across the river from Manhattan, the New Jerseyites see the city as something desirable, they long for the glamour of what he calls “Glitter Gulch, U.S.A.” But as Abbey travels across the ferry and nears the city, its glamour seems to fall away. Like a Monet, all the little imperfect pieces come to the surface. The anger, the dirt, and the crime all become visible when the he enters the city. It is no longer something better than Jersey; it is a doomed place that can’t possibly survive.

Didion is in the other category, the one that has grown tired of New York, sees all its faults and can no longer take them, as the title “Goodbye to All That” suggests. The bravado and charm and grandeur that first draw White’s settler types, which she once was, gradually fades and now drives them away. Didion calls New York “a city for the very young.” She goes there with the typical idealism, plans only to stay for a short while then is sucked in. However, she says, “It never occurred to me that I was living a real life there.” New York is a fantasy world, a playground for the idealistic. But with age and the loss of idealism and the rise of realism, the places that once were home become unbearable and the settler becomes hardened. Didion, too, refers to the love for New York as like that for a first love. However, as most do, she falls out of love with the city that was once her high school sweetheart, and she most move on, and away, back into the real world.

Schulman in “People and Their Streets, Places,” also has discovered that Manhattan is not a perfect place. After living there, she realizes that rats weren’t just, “Something that bit babies in an unreal and faraway ghetto.” She discovers the real problems of living in such a compressed city, infestation, unemployment, and selfishness. She finds that the problem with New York is that its residents only care about themselves, and that is what makes it dangerous.

Personally, I most identify with Didion’s views in “Goodbye to All That.” Right now, I feel like I’m in the throes of some teenage romance. But as she said, I do not feel like I’m living a real life. I am partitioned off from the poor, if I get in a bind I can still call my mom, but still be far enough away to feel like I’m independent. Going on adventures at two in the morning still seems feasible. One day though, I know I’ll grow tired of this. I’ll want a real life and a husband and maybe some babies. I hope though, that I can remain here. That’s the beauty of Brooklyn, you can get to the City, but you can also escape from it.