Tag Archives: Let the Great World Spin

Reflection on Let the Great World Spin

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The book “Let the Great World Spin” was interesting because it was made up of three different main stories and it gave the audience knowledge of what was going on from the perspectives of different people. One story was about John and Corian Corrigan and the people they met in New York City. Another story was about Claire, Gloria, Jaslyn and other people they met in or going to New York City. There was also the real life story about the man, Philippe Petit, when he walked across a wire between the Twin Towers in New York City. Throughout the book, there are connections between the stories.

Each story has the goal of telling the reader that it is important to get involved with New York City, rather than sit back and let things happen without your input. Everyone is effected by the city. Whether living in it as a religious pauper, walking on a tight rope between the World Trade Centers, or even just coming to buy a special chess set made of Canadian wood.

What I find unique about this book is that the author, Colum McCann, switches his writing style back and forth between first person and third person. Once I read a chapter of the book, I have to change the way I pick up information from the following chapter.

Keep Spinning, World- Reactions to LTGWS

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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

A Reflection On The Book

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During our discussion this past Monday, there was a general consensus around the table that “Let The Great World Spin” was a book very much concerned with death and how different people perceive death differently. While each of the main chapters (especially in the first book) deal with death (J.A Corrigan’s death, Jazzlyn’s death, Joshua being killed in ‘Nam, Tillie’s hinted-at suicide), the “walker sections” in between the books provide a stark contrast.

The walker’s dream of walking across the Twin Towers on a tightrope, and what some might perceive as his recklessness with his life, is not born of a desire to die, but of his desire to express the thrill of living.  The insane amount of effort the walker puts into the completion of his goal and his eventual accomplishment of it express the purest form of living there is. While he was practicing, and when he eventually performed the feat, the walker was free; free of all the shackles of an everyday life, free of all worries, and, perhaps most importantly, free of any fear of dying. In those 45 minutes on the wire, in the skies of New York City, he was truly alive.

It was this stark contrast of life/death that really fascinated me about the book and why the walker sections were particularly exciting for me to read. And with that, I leave you all with a quote that I feel applies to the walker.

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“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.

Let the Great World Spin Reflection

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In class we talked about how this novel relates to death and how different people can deal with it very differently. The chapter that I feel best demonstrates how differently people can react to death is “A Fear of Love”.

The two main characters, Lara and Blaine, react drastically differently from each other, despite being very similar individuals. Lara struggles to forget about the events that led to them killing two people. Whereas, Blaine quickly rationalizes his part in the accident by explaining that it was Corrigan’s fault because he did not know how to drive.

It is not surprising to see contrasting reactions to death; however, I find it interesting because both Lara and Blaine are so similar. They are both artists and enjoyed the party lifestyle with many drugs and few concerns. Yet, their reactions to death were complete opposites, which show how influential death can be and how difficult it is to come to terms with. At the end of the chapter we can even see that it is driving the couple apart, as each cannot understand the other’s response.