A small note.
If you read this blog regularly, you may have wondered about the lack of entries, completely unaware that this happened.
Praise of any kind is always tricky for me to process. Yes, I love it and seek it OH GOD, YES. When I found out, I took some slugs of Cointreau, called my ma, told some friends, ran through the sidewalks of the Upper East Side throwing clumps of new snow into the air, walked along Central Park, walked all the way down to the Apple Store because why the fuck not, pawed some iPods all soppy wet, got some French fries, took a taxi home. And when I catch myself enjoying praise, I find ways to sabotage the pleasure: the high I felt on Sunday, rather than spurring me on to write, encouraged laziness and hypochondria over what are likely sinus headaches BUT WHAT IF IT'S A BRAIN TUMOR, etc. I suppose this is my method of avoiding the sin of pride but wow what a shitty method it is. (It occurs to me as I write this that pride is exactly what Brodie gets punished for in the Brooklyn Bridge story um er uh draw yr own conclusions.)
I should also mention that I've been trying to finish up the Civic Center landmarks, which means I have to tackle the Woolworth Building and City Hall, and such big-deal buildings have always given me trouble: what can I offer that Wikipedia won't? I got out of that hangup with the Brooklyn Bridge by making use of fantasies I'd been entertaining since reading Luc Sante's Low Life (the first book I picked up after 9/11, which is maybe telling you too much but it's out of my hands now--again, draw yr own conclusions) but these two don't lend themselves to mythopoeia quite as easily. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them.
But the blog will continue. It pleases me to write about the city. It pleases me to treat New York as unmapped territory, or a memory I am trying to recollect in all its original intensity. It also pleases me to write fiction, but I don't want to do that here, or at least not much of it here--maybe that's another blog.
Thank you for reading.
Praise of any kind is always tricky for me to process. Yes, I love it and seek it OH GOD, YES. When I found out, I took some slugs of Cointreau, called my ma, told some friends, ran through the sidewalks of the Upper East Side throwing clumps of new snow into the air, walked along Central Park, walked all the way down to the Apple Store because why the fuck not, pawed some iPods all soppy wet, got some French fries, took a taxi home. And when I catch myself enjoying praise, I find ways to sabotage the pleasure: the high I felt on Sunday, rather than spurring me on to write, encouraged laziness and hypochondria over what are likely sinus headaches BUT WHAT IF IT'S A BRAIN TUMOR, etc. I suppose this is my method of avoiding the sin of pride but wow what a shitty method it is. (It occurs to me as I write this that pride is exactly what Brodie gets punished for in the Brooklyn Bridge story um er uh draw yr own conclusions.)
I should also mention that I've been trying to finish up the Civic Center landmarks, which means I have to tackle the Woolworth Building and City Hall, and such big-deal buildings have always given me trouble: what can I offer that Wikipedia won't? I got out of that hangup with the Brooklyn Bridge by making use of fantasies I'd been entertaining since reading Luc Sante's Low Life (the first book I picked up after 9/11, which is maybe telling you too much but it's out of my hands now--again, draw yr own conclusions) but these two don't lend themselves to mythopoeia quite as easily. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them.
But the blog will continue. It pleases me to write about the city. It pleases me to treat New York as unmapped territory, or a memory I am trying to recollect in all its original intensity. It also pleases me to write fiction, but I don't want to do that here, or at least not much of it here--maybe that's another blog.
Thank you for reading.
posted by Michael at
12:11 AM
7 Comments:
Thank you for blogging. I found your blog last night via William Gibsion's blog and now I'm hooked. Thanks for taking the time to do it right.
Congrats -- not surprising, the BB post was great!
Wow. I had no idea William Gibson had a blog. So congratulations to you for making it there. How wonderful to know he's out there reading you. Suddenly I'm a just as excited as you -- to know that I have the same reading habits as Mr. Gibson.
I read you, too, and a big fan despite the fact that this is my first comment. You know so much about the city that I feel I could ask you anything. That's so cool about Gibson.
We still love you, brother!
--The bunny taking her slippers off
mas blogging, por favor!
What a phenomenal job you are doing, congratulations.
Your patience and willingness to start and finish something is really admirable- a good example for all bloggers out there who start a blog full of fervor and tail off within a matter of a month.
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