Write a post for Sept. 3rd:
Analyze E. B.White’s opening line, “On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.”
Discuss White’s prophecy (final pages of the book) about airplanes in the light of 9/11.
Kamelia Kilawan
E.B. White’s Here is New York
The opening line of Here is New York has a clear-cut message: true New Yorkers treasure solitude and their privacy. In today’s times both of these qualities define the way we view not simply the lives of our elected leaders but also every small business owner, immigrant, parent, child, teen, or simply put: any New York resident with a dream.
I believe that E.B. White had a solid idea about the most unique and valuable things New York City can offer. Not simply freedom or an opportunity for those who desire it, but the very qualities that make this city a haven for the “queer.”
White’s eerie omen in the wake of 9/11 about the danger of soaring airplanes in the midst of high skyscrapers makes him not only an amazing writer but one with amazing foresight.
And his prophecy to preserve the one natural, high element of the city, the tree, reminds me of the prophecy we see in environmental activism and films like The Lorax. I, for one, agree with White. Much like the tree in his story, strained in every direction, we all are just the same.
It is important to acknowledge and maintain the natural, because it is the only true example of our own queer desires and the inability we have to pursue all of it in a lonely, private city.
Outside of New York, some people may refer to native New Yorkers as jaded, unconventional and insensible because of their lack of attention and caring for their surroundings. E. B. White opens his iconic poem about New York with “on any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gifts of loneliness and the gift of privacy,” which illustrates that as crowded and crazy the city might be it makes each person feel alone in their own world.
As a commuter, and referred by White as a citizen of the second New York, I welcome those gifts of privacy and loneliness. Within those moments and hours of wandering the city I create my own world and have the ability to find myself. There is so much that occurs within the small island and it breaths the aurora of “it could happen to you,” and success is just inches away. People can feel the loneliness and inadequateness but it also brings a sense of peacefulness that transforms into a communal bond between others, and contradicts the idea of being lonely in this vast city.
White continues his depiction of New York and ends with a disturbing and echoing analogy in the wake of the attacks on September 11th. “The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible,” White wrote. The citizens of Manhattan gave the world a sense of invincibility and immortality, until the day that terrorist attacked the World Trade Center. As White proclaims, “a single flight of planes can quickly end this island fantasy,” it brings New York back to fragile and humane state. We come together in crisis’s, take away prejudices and work to rebuild New York for future generations.
Rebecca Ungarino on E.B. White’s Here is New York
The references of New York establishments both past and present, the still-relevant ideals of New Yorkers, and the descriptions of the “three New Yorks” in E.B. White’s short novel are beautiful features of what comes across as a long essay.
The opening line largely sets the tone for the book. White demonstrates from the first few lines that New York, in its five boroughs, is indeed made up of masses of people – natives, transplants, and commuters – who seek out grand lives (these “queer prizes” that White refers to) in one capacity or another, but all want – and receive – quiet, lonely, private lives at the end of the day. No matter the neighborhood, as White mentions many neighborhoods in his book, New York gives its residence a chance to work, a chance to travel, and a chance to rest.
The first line cuts to the chase. E.B. White casts such a shadow over New York, ironically of course, and describes the boroughs with such New York-style disdain that any non-New Yorker wouldn’t want to step foot onto New York soil.
The disturbing omens concerning planes and destruction that White makes throughout the book lend themselves to White’s accurate (while some may say prophetic) insight about New York’s ruination. Three separate instances – toward the beginning of the book, in the last few pages, and then in the last paragraph – occur where White mentions planes causing tragedy in New York. I think of it has, perhaps E.B. White predicted that New York would be overtaken by commercialized endeavors, technology, and bigger, greater vehicles, or maybe he literally meant planes. Either/or, his prophecies prove to be extremely eerie.
Overall, Here is New York is a gorgeous depiction of the real New York.
Danielle Russell
E.B. White’s Here is New York
New York is filled with over 8 million residents today. But somehow you can be surrounded by so many people and still feel alone. New Yorkers are known to be unfriendly, rude, and self-reliant. We are eager to get where we are going without interacting with our surroundings. The city offers a sense of coldness, coldness in the sense that everyone is too focused on themselves to develop relationships with others. People become so entangled with making their dreams come true they forget the point of living. White says that “the quality of New York that insulates its inhabitants from life may simply weaken them as individuals.” That is why many say if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere. There is so much going on in this city many are amazed how people from different races, religions and social statuses manage to coexist together. E. B. Whites book about New York is still relevant today because we still deal with many of the issues he wrote about.
White’s prophecy about airplanes in the light of 9/11 was head on. It makes me think he had an uncanny knack for predicting how New York will turn out. I think it was completely logical for him to feel New York City is no longer indestructible. Society is always advancing and new technology is being invented. It is now easier to reach different places and get your hands on anything imaginable. With New York also growing and developing into a city bigger than life, no wonder why it would be a target for many. E. B. White brings to light that with greatness there comes a price.
Here is New York Marian Thomas
First line means of those who strangely decide to live in New York or be in New York it will bring loneliness despite there being so many people and also privacy in which the people of New York care about theirselves and their personal gain that leads ppl to live private lives. He continued to stress the space of eighteen inches of seperation and connection of those in New York he seemed to meet.
In the final lines, White seemed to predict 9/11 as he went on to say New York is destructible and how planes can crash and burn the towers, alluding to the Twin towers. He seemed to think the city was a target and that the people could be annihilated at any time.
Jennifer Ross
E.B. White’s Here is New York
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.”
In any other town in this nation, loneliness would not be considered a gift…maybe privacy, but definitely not loneliness. To “bestow” loneliness and privacy on a person, in any other town, big or small, could otherwise be known as shunning an outcast amongst the community, someone so obscure or awkward that the locals deem untrustworthy or scary to be around. Yet, in New York, it is a gift and a glorious one at that.
I imagine a tourist reading E.B. White’s opening line and feeling a deep confusion, a troubled sadness, thinking, “What is wrong with New Yorkers? Who would voluntarily want to live in loneliness and privacy?” They imagine this gift in their town, their environment, a place nothing like New York, be that as it may. Without the gift, New Yorkers could lose all patience within themselves and with their world, eventually becoming, dare I say it – rude. Perhaps after reading this quote, the ordinary tourist can justify calling a New Yorker rude, and calmly return to their world appreciating theirs while demonizing the big “bad” apple.
Airplanes in the light of 9/11
There’s a sense of eeriness in how E.B. White describes the city and its destructibility. “A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers….cremate the millions.” Never had I imagined this could be prophesized so many decades ago, in such a small book. Yet there it is, in black and white. “…cremate the millions.” How horribly truthful those words are. I wonder what E.B. White would have said had he been in the city on that fateful morning. Would he have any words to say; or could the site of the burning trade towers leave him as it left many of us – speechless. As I read his words, mental images flooded my mind of where I was that morning. What was I doing? Who was I with? Did I speak? As terrible as that day was, E.B. White’s “prophesy” was wrong in one matter. We did not destruct. The city may have been badly burned and forever scarred, but it is now much wiser and stronger. The city proudly wears that scar for all to see. No shame on its face, just strength.
Analyze E. B.White’s opening line, “On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.”
As Roger Angell expressed in his introduction of E.B White’s work, “It is hard to feel private in the surging daily crowds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, say, or lonely on a side street packed solid with gridlocked traffic.” (11) Indeed, the opening line of Here is New York seems peculiar when one witnesses the sheer flood of civilization in New York City. People seem to be swarming the streets of the city, each with vibrant passion, excitement and enthusiasm. For most, the ’18 inches’ of separation that New York offers its inhabitants from one another offers a dream come true: a “Fragile participation with destiny.” The city provides a front row seat to “…all enormous and violent and wonderful events that are taking place every minute.” (21). However, to those who desire such queer prizes, the enormity and grandeur of New York can make the privacy and loneliness achieved all the more satisfying. As I commute every day to Baruch College, I witness firsthand how the 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 their day. Paradoxically, for those longing for internal quiet, New York is perfect.
Discuss White’s prophecy (final pages of the book) about airplanes in the light of 9/11.
Written in 1949, the scene depicted by E.B White in the final pages of his essay is at once enlightening and startlingly familiar in the aftermath of 9/11. It is important to note that at the time of the writing of the book, the gruesome sights and sounds of war were probably ingrained in the mind of the author after the atrocities of WWII, and of the Holocaust. People around the world saw images of planes flying over civilian neighborhoods in Europe dropping bombs on apartment complexes. It was only natural for White to envision the grand struggle of worldwide conflicting ideologies that would ensue. At the time of the publishing, E.B White witnessed the building of the United Nations on New York soil. There, hundreds of nations would be represented in no other city in the world but Manhattan. Therefore, there is no greater message of hate than to mercilessly attack New York, “the capital of the world” (55) and a symbol of cultural diversity, heterogeneous unity, racial brotherhood and freedom. As White states, “Today Liberty shares the role with Death.” (54) Thankfully Mr. White’s prediction of the annihilation of New York City never occurred. Yet, for those of us who experienced the terror attacks of 9/11/01, White’s message rang true. The world must collectively take a stand against acts of hatred and intolerance, and feverishly support the ideals that hold up this great city today.
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.”
E.B. White’s opening line captures New York City’s character. This further developed in the reading, but the opening line sets the tone by getting the reader to ask why and how the city grants the gift. This opening line is true to every aspect of the city both good and bad. It expresses the feelings of inclusion and exclusion that everyone can feel at a given moment because of people from all walks of life colliding in one place.
White’s last line shows that the feeling of fear has been constant in the city because of its esteem. The way White is able to tap into the emotion of the city is what makes this piece timeless. This is why the last line is alarming to a generation that has lived through 9/11. The emotions he felt at the time and the emotions felt now are the same.
Although New York is a city filled with people, it is definitely a place where one can be lonely and private. Especially with todays use of technology, things like social media have replaced social interactions. In a fast paced city filled with people, it is easy for one to get overwhelmed and not be able to keep up.
New Yorkers are known to be in a rush. Following their daily routines, people dash from one place to another without a second glance at those that are around them. Seeking prizes like money and fame can leave a person distant from people. Balance of work and social life is needed unless loneliness and a private life is what you seek.
Although New York is a city filled with people, it is definitely a place where one can be lonely and private. Especially with todays use of technology, things like social media have replaced social interactions. In a fast paced city filled with people, it is easy for one to get overwhelmed and not be able to keep up.
New Yorkers are known to be in a rush. Following their daily routines, people dash from one place to another without a second glance at those that are around them. Seeking prizes like money and fame can leave a person distant from people. Balance of work and social life is needed unless loneliness and a private life is what you seek.
” A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions.”
This quote describes the tragedy that occurred on 9/11 as if it were written after the fact. New York, a city full of life became a quiet city filled with worried people who would flinch at the sight or sound of a plane in the sky. The “fantasy of an indestructible city was shattered. Those who, in panic, ran into the subways for shelter found themselves trapped in “lethal chambers. Frantic people seeking their way out of the smoking city filled the bridges. The swinging bridges filled over capacity seemed as if they were to fall and crumble, taking everyone with it.
Taxonomizing E.B. White’s Here is New York as simply a description of “the city that never sleeps” is unfair. White aptly expresses, in less than sixty pages of text, what makes a New Yorker, the feelings and emotions, from various perspectives, accompanying that title, neighborhoods in New York, the constant changes of the people, mood, and structure of the City, and, more generally, the paradox that is New York City. White begins by writing, “On any such person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy,” leading readers into his paradoxical characterization of New York. Being a New Yorker, and what White would call a “commuter,” I find myself in numerous situations surrounded by thousands of people, with whom I am only “eighteen inches away from,” feeling totally alone. I enjoy the repose of a subway ride, where I am packed tightly in a steel box with fifty or so people. I embrace the fact that a man can wear a pink bikini while riding a bicycle on crowded Lexington Avenue without question or second glance. White captures paradoxes, such as the “gifts” of loneliness and privacy, on so many levels that it is unfair to call Here is New York simply a description.
If anything, Here is New York is foreboding. People living in privacy and loneliness while never being more than eighteen inches away from one another is fragile. The complex system White describes seems to be teetering on destruction– even death. Planes remind White of this fragility; a simple squadron of planes equipped with bombs could end New York. Written in the mid 1900s, White predicts the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, even such a tumultuous event did not stop New York from beating on, something White also alludes to. Planes may be equipped with bombs, or used as bombs, but New York and New Yorkers come equipped with resiliency and a sense of community.
In an attempt to bring it down to date, I look out into a more remote part of New York in Long Island where I am free from the hustle of the city E.B. White longingly spoke of in “Here is New York.” I travel on the same Long Island Railroad he mentioned as a daily commuter privy to the city’s way when I am there and reserved when I think about it as I return to the suburbs. Across streets and avenues I seldom have a moment to stop and reflect lest I relinquish my own personal space to people maneuvering their way around me. Yet, 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 the loneliness and privacy 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. We look at the growth of New York sometimes with sadness because we do not want it to be marred by another 9/11.
New York has risen as an example and as a target. When White wrote this piece he perhaps estimated his prophecy about the “destroying planes” to the conflict with the Soviet Union, at the time a presumable nuclear threat to the United States. We have seen the impact of the planes on 9/11 and today we behold the uncertainty regarding Syria and the U.S.’s position on chemical weapons. When I walk under the shadow of these buildings, I can feel the routine of the trains beneath me or hear innocent shouts or sirens going off here and there and I wonder of the “perverted dreamer” in the midst waiting to “loose the lightning.” At those times I long to steal away in New York’s gifts all the while knowing that even in our privacy there is a charisma about this city that will not hide it as a target; not then and not now.
E.B. White poses a hopeful and majestic view of New York that he acknowledges through his descriptive details of the beauty of the city and its people. The opening line promises “the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy” to those finding their way to New York for the very first time. The line is an honest paradox of what one may experience while living in the city. Despite its inviting bright lights and crowded streets, the city can often make one feel isolated in his or her own destination and goal. A common example of this would be the morning commute on the 6 train. Strangers make it their priority to ignore others by covering their eyes with sunglasses, stuffing their ears with earphones, pulling their bags close, and letting their minds wander. White captures this concept perfectly.
The last pages of the book eerily prophesied the events of 9/11 despite being written roughly fifty-three years prior. White describes the “flight of planes” as the sign of the city’s imminent mortality and destruction. The irony in this idea is that the very thing that can destroy the city is the thing that built it: man. The image of the great, thriving city that never sleeps shutting down in silence and annihilation is haunting to this day. Despite this dark prophecy, White keeps a somewhat optimistic view; he states, “This must be saved, this particular thing, this tree.” The battered, willow tree symbolizes the life that exists before the installments of the buildings and the bridges, before New York came to be. To White, this tree may have been a symbol for new growth. But most of all, it is a symbol of strength and hope that must be saved in times of tragedy. It is what drives New York to become the city that it is today.
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.” This is an interesting opening line. The author E.B. White’s opening line seems to be coming from his own personal experience. It is interesting to see how he uses the term “gift” as a form of reward with words such as loneliness and privacy. It is as if people who encounter success would prefer to be left alone rather than be surrounded all the time with those who always want to be in their presence consistently.
White’s prophecy about airplanes in the light of 9/11, is clearly an idea that led to action. It can be believed that New York is destructible because of the recent events of 9/11. All these new technology’s and infrastructures can destroy human kind because it has. Even when all these things are meant to better the world and ways of living, there can be a reverse effect which has been proven to exist from past events. However, White could be using the planes as an example because during that time, war had just occurred. The city was in amazement with the new surroundings. Buildings were being built taller than trees and planes were new to everyone. White had an idea and it is upsetting that it had to become reality.
E.B. White’s timeless quote “On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.” is covering the truth of New York, a city of 8 million, that ironically provides a sense of isolation for its people. The ability to be condensed in a town with this amount of humans, and successfully coexist as completely polarized individuals, is a prize in and of itself.
As New Yorkers, we move as loners with our own agendas, directly next to millions of peers, on a daily basis. The negative connotation that goes with a word like “loneliness” is a viewpoint that would be understood from an outsider looking in, but as a native, you have no choice but to be familiar with the underlying value that “loneliness” provides.
The physicality of sharing sidewalks and train cars with so many others can seem paradoxical when remembering the fact that your life path is a completely lonesome entity, who’s paving is exclusively left up to you and the city.
E.B. White’s mention of airplanes is just as much a work of art as his subject matter, New York City. Vivid, descriptive creations, which both make a statement that is left up to the observer to decode.
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.
Our uniqueness has gone through every type of criticism from outsiders, but our inside understanding of the way the city works provides a sense of thick skin. Those who have fantasized about our preconceived “coldness,” probably watched the television in awe the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attack, as New Yorkers supported each other in a time of need.
In times of need, New York stands united. Other parts of the country and world may criticize us for not sharing false smiles and greetings with strangers on a daily basis, but that would only distract us from the privacy and loneliness that gives our city it’s unique character.
From devastating terror attacks, electricity blackouts in the hottest days of summer, and even the wrath of a super storm that paralyzed a large portion of the city for months, New York continues to show it’s strength and ability to live in unison. E.B. White certainly captured a glimpse of that strength in “Here is New York.”
Many may not understand why we wait until times of hardship to show a broad sense of camaraderie. I say it’s New York’s way of doing things, and we’ll continue to do just fine being the one’s who get it.
Really thoughtful comments on E.B. White’s Here Is New York. Worth mentioning, too, is White’s powerful use of language –his voice. Narrative. First person. Engaging. Literary. He is truly a visual writer. We see and we hear what he sees and what he hears.
As we write our feature stories this semester, keep White’s voice in your mind.
The first line by E.B White: “On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy”. Is a great way to capture the reader’s attention, whether you have lived in New York or not. Why? Because it can be hard to have a sense of privacy in a city filled with different ethnicities and thousands of people from different countries all meshed into one place. However, loneliness can easily be found in the city whether you consider it a gift or a curse. The city that never sleeps is always on the move; people go through one phase of the day to another at the speed of light. This can clearly lead people to feel disconnected with the city itself as well as the people around them. Yet, the final line alluding to 9/11 makes this reading timeless, its alarming to see how he can still connect the city and the feelings of people towards it in today’s generation with such a prediction, while the times change, the city’s vulnerability and the connection to the people in it, do not change.
-Abel Ramirez