Author Archives: Roz Bernstein

Just read through all of your fine comments on E.B. White’s Here Is New York and I suggest that you all do the same. Here is a little summary of some of the highpoints:

Kamelia: “White writes at a moment of pre-environmental activism–made her think of the tree in the film The Lorax I.”

John: “Welcomes privacy as a commuter.” Says that loneliness can result in peacefulness and become a “communal bond.”

Rebecca: “White describes the boroughs with such New York style disdain that non-New Yorkers wouldn’t want to step foot onto New York soil.”

Danielle: “People are so entangled with making dreams come true that they forget the point of living.”

Marian: “18 inches of separation and connection between New Yorkers.”

Jennifer: “Without the gift of loneliness and privacy, New Yorkers “could lose all patience within themselves and within their world, eventually becoming, dare I say it, rude.”

Ezra (a commuter): “All the commotion, bright lights, and attractions vying for our attention are merely a silent background to most as they race through the agendas of the day. Paradoxically for those longing for internal quiet, New York is perfect.”

Earl: “The way White is able to tap into the emotion of the city is what makes this piece timeless.”

Margarita: Speaks of use of technology –“how social media has replaced social interactions.”

Thomas: “Here Is New York is not simply a description. If anything, it is a foreboding.”

Nirvani: “I can find a space on a bench in Madison Square Park and put my earphones in and there I find solidarity: a slice of loneliness that White speaks of. That slice today is much thinner than before as our seasons rarely hold the relaxed air breathed in by die-hards of White’s summer.”

Roxanne: Speaking of the morning commute: “Strangers make it their priority to ignore others by covering their eyes with sunglasses, stuffing their ears with ear phones, pulling their bags close, and letting their minds wander.”

Crystal: “Building were being built taller than trees and planes were new to everyone. White had an idea and it is upsetting that it became a reality.”

Gerard: “The man from The Bronx who travels to Staten Island every weekend to help Hurricane Sandy victims with the restoration of their homes and businesses. The rushing college student who’s running late for class and stops to help a tourist correct their mistake of taking the R train into Queens from 59th street, when they actually meant to hop on the uptown 6, destined for the Met Museum. These examples of natives stepping outside of their privacy may not be what is brought up when the general boxed description of a New Yorker is the topic of conversation; but the layers of people and personality types is what makes that box simply too small to be the whole truth.”

Abel: “People go through one phase of the day to another at the speed of light.”