I found it hard to read the section of The American Scene because it felt like a visual overload in my mind. James tries to capture the city as he sees it, but after not being exposed to it for a long period of time. The use of commas throughout this piece was mind numbing to say the least, but he was trying to describe New York City so I can understand why there was so many of them. The city itself has a “greatness” that cannot be captured in a “single impression” (369). James shows through his writing when he uses lists to describe the characteristic of of the city. At this time James is not a active New York, so it is understandable why the city is overwhelming him. This piece accurately captures the essence of New York because it voices how “irresistible” it is, but in trying to describe it nature overwhelms the reader with all its “energy,” “light,” “nature,” “science,” and “beauty” (370). All these element help make the city we know now, even if this was written over a century ago.
The idea I was most interested in was beauty because it varies from person to person, but James did not assign beauty to a singular place. James spoke of how Trinity Church was once a “visible” beauty, but now it hidden and yet it still remains there. I agreed with the notion that the city sometimes overwhelms itself and can hide its own beauty. Thus the true beauty of New York, does not lie in the “skyscraper” or the “churches”, but in our individual experience. The world may think it has an overall idea of beauty, but they cannot speak for all of us at one time. I like both the mechanical city and my neighborhood, which has preserved some aspects of nature, but the idea of beauty is found in both of them. I could not easily or readily assign beauty to one place in New York. I thought about it deeply though and if I had to pick one place in New York that I thought was beautiful, it would be the strip of Queens boulevard from 52nd street till 40th.
I’m interested in what other people find to be the “single impression” of beauty in our city, or if they can even assign it to one place?
