Tag Archives: Corrigan

Keep Spinning, World- Reactions to LTGWS

Posted on by
1

It’s kind of intriguing to see how the World Trade Center has such an effect on people in the last half of the century. From the time construction started in 1968, to its opening in 1973, to its tragic incident in 2001, and even extending to now in 2014, and to the future, World Trade Center is and will always be a symbolic representation of New York. This thought really hit me while I was on the E train today, one that was bound for none other than World Trade Center.

My Japanese class made 1000 cranes and attached it to one of the trees in the 9/11 Memorial. The 1000 cranes symbolizes hope. (March 8th, 2014)

Upon finishing Let The Great World Spin, I’m really disappointed- disappointed at the fact that it had to end. I started off with an indifferent attitude to it, since it just felt like a lost piece of novel. I didn’t understand what anybody had to do with each other. It was like a puzzle, with pieces fitting in as the novel progresses, jumping between different people’s viewpoint. It really shows what a small world we live in. I guess the whole “Six Degrees of Separation” thing is true!

In the story, World Trade Center acted as a reference point for everything. So does our lives today as New Yorkers. It symbolizes that even though we were attacked in 2001, we didn’t give up. We get up, rebuild, and are stronger than before. I guess the “world” can mean the World Trade Center in Let the Great World Spin (play on words, doesn’t mean that of course).

~Christopher Chong

Posted on by
1

“The edge of the world here,” (McCann 37)

I was thinking about this quotation, and it inspired me in a way that this can be looked as a intercultural pun. I’m sure most of you heard about the fairy tale regarding Tir na Nog (or some variation of it) which is from Ireland (*cough Corrigans).

A quick refresher, according to what I remember: it’s a story about an old man who sailed westward from Erinn (Ireland) and reached a land of the youth (Tir na Nog), in which no one aged (practically a paradise). After years, he misses his hometown and pleads the tir-na-nog-ians to help him go back, but many advised against it, since returning to Erinn meant instant aging and death for the man. As a solution, they prepared the soil (tir = land) from the land of the youth, and asked of the man to never set his foot off the soil on his journey; that once he sets his foot off, he will most certainly die. Some version tells of his safe arrival back to tir na nog, while others end with the man violating the promise and becoming ashes and dust. Look up the actual story for more information, because my memory may have betrayed me on several details.

In a way, America does resemble the “edge” of the world, especially New York. There is a layer of eternal youth with the inevitability of death (both terms used figuratively, not in a literal sense).

I do not know if the author intended this or if he meant something totally different. However, I do think it is interesting how the stories intertwine in this city like the way the snakes wrap around the caduceus, facing the opposite direction but stemming from one root; our root is the humanity and new york is the top of the caduceus.