How do we “read” a city
How do we “read” a city? Who are the characters? What is the plot?
“A city is a living, breathing thing. Cities, in fact, can even get sick and die.”
“The city is not only a place, but a story.”
We read the built environment, the people, the story to know the city.
“In order to ‘read’ a city, one has to look at the buildings, the inhabitants and the history.”
We read particular places and groups of people.
“I have ‘read’ cities by the feeling I’ve gotten from walking around downtown. Some context would included the way the youth act in a city, its architecture, its nightlife, its special events, and most of all, the type of people I meet. If you don’t talk to any of the residents, you really are only reading the cover, or maybe the little intro on the back of a book.”
We read the economy.
“You read a city by the types of businesses that are located in the city.”
City as malleable, viewer in charge, city as a reflection of self
“The viewer is like a sculptor and molds the city to his liking.”
“What is one man’s sleazy city streets is another man’s pleasurable paradise…. Characteristics that we deem as positive will most likely be consistent with that of our ethical and moral standards.”
“I went into New Orleans reading it like a fairy tale and being the main character.”
Michel de Certeau and comparisons
“Reading a city is not like reading a book. In fact, it is like reading a book, then seeing the movie based off of the book, and then even after that acting out the plot of the story in your own life and in turn becoming a character yourself.”
“The ordinary practitioners of the city live ‘down below,’ below the thresholds at which visibility begins. They walk – an elementary form of this experience of the city; they are walkers, Wandersmanner, whose bodies follow the thicks and thins of an urban ‘text’ they write without being able to read it…. The networks of these moving, intersecting writings compose a manifold story that has neither author nor spectator, shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces: in relation to representations, it remains daily and indefinitely other.”
Knowing, or not knowing, where you are
“There’s always that one little detail like the smell of streets that will remind you of where you are.”
“’Is this New Orleans?’ she asks us everywhere we go.
‘Well, kind of, I guess.’ I know what she’s thinking, we talked up this place so much to her that it’ll never meet her expectations.”
What is at stake for us, as readers of literature and as citizens, in looking at the city for meaning? What might our purpose be?
Connections, identity, change
“We are seeking perspective and enlightenment”
“Our setting affects who we become.”
“to decide where we belong”; to make decisions about our future
What sorts of myths are common to New Orleans? How have you heard New Orleans described?
Cities of myth:
Student from NYC: “I know I will be treated like a celebrity the second I mention where I’m from. I have come to find similarities when I mention New Orleans. There seems to be a surge of energy and envy the moment the name leaves my mouth.”
The major myths are:
“My friends knew New Orleans as the place where Mardi Gras happened and Bourbon Street was real. My family knew it as a poverty and crime stricken, dangerous city that earned the name ‘The Devil’s Playground.’”
“Mardi Gras is the only event people can seem to talk about when the city is mentioned.”
“The story would center around Bourbon St., viewing from afar a bunch of college guys drinking Hurricanes in Pat O’Briens while dancing to the groovy jazz music across the street.”
“Downtown can be dangerous at night so if you wander by yourself then you will get murdered.”
“A lot of poverty, a lot of culture, JAZZ, JAZZ, JAZZ, walk down the street with a beer in your hand and pick shrimp out of your teeth.”
“a city filled with culture”; “more fun than any other city”; “most fun, dirty, jazzy city in America”; “cauldron of evil”; “preservation of jazz and blues”; “rich in culture”; “full of sin and corruption”; “unrealistic place”; “food, music and alcohol”; “wild parties and lots of voodoo”
Myths may have some basis in fact, but they don’t give the full view.
“To others, New Orleans is home.”
“A myth about New Orleans is that it is a stereotypical racist Southern city. I can definitely say that New Orleans is not like other cities in the South. I feel like New Orleans is actually a Northern city situated in the South.”
“Basically, the crime is bad.” But that shouldn’t determine one’s view of the city. Judge the city “based on everything it has to offer the individual.”
“It is a city intermingled with the very rich and the very poor.”
“When I look at the ghettos next to our multi-million dollar buildings, I feel very sad. For those families who actually live in these ghettos, I cannot even imagine what they think about us.”
Myths give a “superficial image created by tourism.” Literature about the city should be more realistic than that. “A good ‘city’ book should be about people’s everyday life; people from downtown, suburbs and the ghetto.”
“The Saints will reach the Superbowl and win it.”
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