Janet Akselrud
Eng 151 – 19582
Professor Seecharan
19 March 2020
Rules That Were Meant to be Broken
From Madison Square Garden’s official timekeeper to Park Avenue pigeons, Gay Talese explored every corner of New York City. After compiling observations, Talese wrote “New York is a City of Things Unnoticed.” It was published in 1961, informing New Yorkers about everything they left unrecognized on a daily basis. Throughout his text, Talese went deeper than simply pointing out how many pigeons inhabit Park Avenue; he described everything that New York City stands for, and everything that New York City was built upon. Decades earlier, George Orwell, a social critic, was making his own observations. To prevent the loss of meaning he thought was taking place in writing, Orwell wrote “Politics and the English language.” Published in 1946, the essay included rules meant to improve a writer’s clarity and coherence. Orwell believed it was better for an author to break the rules than to sound “barbaric” but, he also believed no one could break the rules without making a piece of writing less effective. The overall effectiveness of Orwell’s rules is challenged by Talese. Talese follows some of Orwell’s rules while breaking others and regardless, manages to strengthen the meaningfulness of his writing.
Talese’s biggest strength, which happens to align with Orwell’s rules, is coming up with unique metaphors. At the beginning, Talese describes New York as “a city with cats sleeping under parked cars” (Talese 1). Immediately, Talese makes it clear that cats go largely unrecognized. He continues to expand the metaphor by writing that “[once] a longshoreman who was allergic to cats poisoned them. Within a day rats were all over the place” (Talese 5). Talese illustrates that cats, ignored and even hated, only had their value noticed after a portion of their species was forcibly removed by an oblivious man. In that sense, the cats metaphorically represent immigrants. Like Tales’s cats, immigrants are laborers doing the jobs everyone else looks down upon, staying unnoticed until the absence of their labor becomes problematic. Immigrants are the forgotten cats that New York City was built on, the cats that New York City cannot survive without. It is likely New Yorkers would not have liked being outright told that they are unappreciative of immigrants and lower classes. Therefore, through his cat metaphor, Talese instead gently invites New Yorkers to recognize their flaws. As for whether or not this metaphor follows Orwell’s vision, the first rule Orwell ever stressed was “Never use a metaphor […] which you are used to seeing in print.” This was because Orwell noticed “there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.” Clearly, Talese did not take the easy way out. Rather than resorting to a one sentence comparison, Talese takes the time to formulate an intricate metaphor which, despite being unusual, is able to effectively get the point across.
Beyond inventing metaphors Talese was thoughtful in using vague words, a strategy Orwell looked down upon. Halfway through describing everything unnoticed in New York City, Talese fixated on a man named Biz Mackey calling him a “ladies masseur extraordinaire” (Talese 7). Biz Mackey’s title consists of long, foreign words such as “masseur” and “extraordinaire” both of french origin. The vagueness of the words hides what Biz Mackey actually does, but in a way that leaves readers wanting more. Talese goes on to describe how Biz Mackey gives each woman “a brisk, before-breakfast rubdown” (Talese 7). This description, though also vague, both conceals and reveals Biz Mackey’s true occupation. A “rubdown” could be interpreted as regular duty performed by the masseuse. However, by using words that are more foreign, and less understandable, Talese signals he is purposely concealing Biz Mackey’s job. Reading on, Talese implies Biz Mackey includes a sexual component in his services when mentioning that the masseur “has special keys to the bedrooms […] and [the clients] lie in bed waiting for him” (Talese 8). Being vague on purpose, Talese gets around Orwells’ rules. Orwell assumes that from using foreign words “the result, in general, is an increase in slovenliness and vagueness” (Orwell). Orwell is right that foreign words increased the vagueness in Talese’s writing but Orwell was against vagueness only in its ability to make writing ineffective. Without actually saying Biz Mackey’s occupation, not every reader will uncover the truth, leaving the meaning intentionally unnoticed. The readers that do uncover the truth are meant to understand that looking beyond surface appearances leads to greater insight about the world around them. Thorough readers will keep this lesson in mind the next time they rush to work through the crowded streets of New York City. Talese could not have achieved such a reaction if he stuck to Orewll’s rules of being indefinitely clear and direct.
Talese is an exceptional author because he is the exception to the majority. Talese was able to take Orwell’s rules, that in most circumstances decrease meaning, and use them to create more meaning. Talese is the example of how Orwell’s rules, followed or disregarded, can end up producing effective works. With his use of writing techniques Talese not only intertwined analysis into his writing for readers to ponder but he also left an extra hidden truth. When New Yorkers fail to look deeper, they fail to find meaning. An unnoticed lesson from Talese is: teach that the rules for writing do not matter, what matters is the choice in how to use them.
Works Cited
Orwell, George. “Politics and The English Language.” Horizon, April 1946, https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit
Talese, Gay. “New York is a City of Things Unnoticed.” Walker & Company, 2003, New York.
