Jospeh Mitchell incorporates an exquisite style when he goes about writing. Reading Street Life, I enjoyed the easily-readable style he fuses with the thought that he pursues when writing. The constant use of repetition allows the information to be processed easier. Employing first-person often has bad repercussions, but the way he tangled it with his subconscious thoughts that felt as if I were reading my own mind and it was extremely effective. It was a great way to ease the reader into NYC street life: by connecting himself with the words (which I feel is extremely hard to accomplish for most writers) he is able to show and not tell the writer what he will be writing.

In contrast, I felt that the NY Times CITY LORE feature in movies was not as effective. Understanding that this was a movie feature for what was to come of Mitchell and Gould and the attached reading from Mitchell was the workings of a chapter from a memoir he never finished, I could not really measure them against one another, but I feel like the style of the writer is not quite there. I was completely against the quote to start the article after reading the nutgraf because I thought that it was too broad for the angle the writer may have been pursuing. The article felt scattered (I may have to re-read again).

I agree that Mitchell’s profiles are “highlife-lowlife” pieces. The use of Joe Gould as an interesting complex person in his feature really does break the rules of non fiction.