NP: Chronic City

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I notice you didn't take offense at my stereotyping of the yuppie areas.  I've lived in Brooklyn for all of my 51 years and I'd never live anywhere else. I love my borough. I stand by my description -- it's not tongue-in-cheek or ignorant -- it's an accurate amalgam of the residents of non-yuppie Brooklyn (and those yuppies are Brooklynese too, by the way).  How would you describe the people who live in Brooklyn?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: malignd at aol.com
>Sent: Jun 25, 2009 5:34 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: NP: Chronic City
>
>Hard to know whether tongue is in cheek.  If not, this is repulsive in 
>its close-minded and ignorant dismissiveness.
>
><<"Real" Brooklyn: less educated, desperately poor, working class, no 
>future, closed-minded, intolerant, racist, homophobic, religious, 
>pit-bulls, baseball bats-as-weapons, guns, ethnically mixed, boats, 
>fishing, pick-up basketball, deep-fried food sold behind bullet-proof 
>glass.  Clueless looks when Manhattan is mentioned.>>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: kelber at mindspring.com
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Sent: Thu, Jun 25, 2009 4:20 pm
>Subject: RE: NP: Chronic City
>
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>The difference between Manhattan and the "authentic" (non-yuppified) 
>boroughs
>mirrors the blue state/red state division to some extent.
>
>Manhattan/Park Slope/Williamsburgh:  wealthy, educated, politically 
>progressive,
>hip, insular, elitist, golden retrievers, cafe's, bookstores, 
>cruelty-free,
>fair-trade, healthy.
>
>"Real" Brooklyn: less educated, desperately poor, working class, no 
>future,
>closed-minded, intolerant, racist, homophobic, religious, pit-bulls, 
>baseball
>bats-as-weapons, guns, ethnically mixed, boats, fishing, pick-up 
>basketball,
>deep-fried food sold behind bullet-proof glass.  Clueless looks when 
>Manhattan
>is mentioned.
>
>Living in NYC gives you access to both.  Immersion in only one is 
>stifling.
>
>Laura
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>
>>Sent: Jun 25, 2009 9:18 AM
>>To: malignd at aol.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject: RE: NP: "Chronic City"
>>
>>Malignd sez:
>>
>>> I'm fond of the outer boroughs too and I certainly understand
>>> your sentiments, but as someone ?? said, it isn't necessarily
>>> either/or...
>>
>>I lived 15 years in Manhattan, 15 in Brooklyn, and I'm with you: *any* 
>big
>>city, certainly any world city, contains more worlds than any of us 
>has time
>>to savor. And to the extent that "frat town" and "society people" 
>signify
>>non-natives and aggressive money/status climbers, well... that's what 
>cities
>>have been about for a long, long time, drawing young optimists in from 
>the
>>sticks and enriching them, disillusioning them, or both. Meanwhile the
>>real-estate wheel keeps gentrifying one neighborhood as another, 
>formerly
>>fashionable, slides downhill.
>>
>>Cities that stop doing that -- cities full of Real [Cityname]ites 
>who've
>>lived there all their lives in stable, traditional neighborhoods -- 
>are dead
>>or dying.
>>
>>-Monte
>>
>>
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