F. Scott Fitzgerald > Quotes > Quote > Stephen liked it
“From the ruins, lonely and inexplicable as the sphinx, rose the Empire State Building.
And just as it had been tradition of mine to climb to the Plaza roof to take leave of the beautiful city extending as far as the eyes could see, so now I went to the roof of that last and most magnificent of towers.
Then I understood. Everything was explained. I had discovered the crowning error of the city. Its Pandora's box.
Full of vaunting pride, the New Yorker had climbed here, and seen with dismay what he had never suspected. That the city was not the endless sucession of canyons that he had supposed, but that it had limits, fading out into the country on all sides into an expanse of green and blue. That alone was limitless.
And with the awful realization that New York was a city after all and not a universe, the whole shining ediface that he had reared in his mind came crashing down.
That was the gift of Alfred Smith to the citizens of New York.”
― My Lost City: Personal Essays 1920-40
And just as it had been tradition of mine to climb to the Plaza roof to take leave of the beautiful city extending as far as the eyes could see, so now I went to the roof of that last and most magnificent of towers.
Then I understood. Everything was explained. I had discovered the crowning error of the city. Its Pandora's box.
Full of vaunting pride, the New Yorker had climbed here, and seen with dismay what he had never suspected. That the city was not the endless sucession of canyons that he had supposed, but that it had limits, fading out into the country on all sides into an expanse of green and blue. That alone was limitless.
And with the awful realization that New York was a city after all and not a universe, the whole shining ediface that he had reared in his mind came crashing down.
That was the gift of Alfred Smith to the citizens of New York.”
― My Lost City: Personal Essays 1920-40
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Jan 16, 2012 08:56PM
and i just ate a York peppermint patty! i had requested a "New York peppermint pattie" but found out it's just York. i wonder if that character would want to eat one, too. that would be an interesting prop for that scene. it would go something like this..."And with the awful realization that New York was a city after all and not a universe, the whole shining ediface that he had reared in his mind came crashing down. So he drowned his sorrows in a cup of hot chocolate, and a York peppermint pattie..."
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I have always feared New York as being the evil city. This is a common idea in Texas. I have a friend there who tells me its like a foreign country now. I get the willies just thinking about it kinda like Scott Westerfeld's book about the worm living under it and the parasites.
New York has always been feared as different by most folks in the US. Just read a bit about Al Smith's campaign for President to se what I mean. Having lived there for 20 years, more or less, I still consider myself a new yorker no matter where I'm living.
No matter what you've heard about New York... It's true... and false.
Stephen wrote: "New York has always been feared as different by most folks in the US. Just read a bit about Al Smith's campaign for President to se what I mean.
I didn't know that. I thought that those of us in Texas were a small minority. My Uncle Frank came from NYC. We went to see them on our way to Newfoundland and it seemed different but I have never been able to overcome my fear.
I didn't know that. I thought that those of us in Texas were a small minority. My Uncle Frank came from NYC. We went to see them on our way to Newfoundland and it seemed different but I have never been able to overcome my fear.
