Bridges: Blog Posts 7 and 8

Part I

Both Man on Wire and Judge Soderberg’s monologue in Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann deal with crime. However, while Man on Wire is about the artistic crime Phillipe Petit committed when he walked between the World Trade Centers on a tightrope, Judge Soderberg’s monologue is about sordid crime like rape, robbery, arson, and murder. Phillipe Petit’s crime is a crime of privilege because he has the time and resources to plan a stunt that has no purpose other than to challenge himself and to amaze others. The crimes Judge Soderberg speaks of are crimes of desperation, as most people involved have little choice but to engage in criminal activity. Both types of crime shock people and make them uncomfortable, but only Petit’s type of crime is considered art.

Part II

I was annoyed by the way Judge Soderberg thought of Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan during Tillie and Jazzlyn’s trial for robbery. By this point in the story I knew Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan well and I liked all of their characters. I was rooting for them. I also knew that Jazzlyn and Corrigan die in a car crash right after the trial, which made their last moments in the court room more meaningful. Judge Sonderberg does not know Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan. Instead of seeing Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan as the kind-hearted people I knew them to be, Judge Soderberg sees them as more lowly dirt he has to deal with. Judge Soderberg considers Tillie’s jokes irritating, he sees Jazzlyn as hopeless, and he mistakes Corrigan for a pimp. I was annoyed at Judge Soderberg for not being able to see past the assumptions he makes about Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan to the real people underneath.

Instead of focusing on Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan Judge Soderberg is distracted by an unusual case he is to preside over later in the day, the trial of Phillipe Petit, the tight-rope walker. The contrast between the Judge’s feelings about Tillie and Jazzlyn’s case versus Petit’s case again illustrates the difference between sordid crime and artistic crime.

I was excited by Petit’s appearance in the same courtroom as Tillie, Jazzlyn, and Corrigan because this instance connected even more of the characters in Let the Great World Spin. I enjoy how characters in Let the Great World Spin keep intersecting with one another without even realizing it.

Here’s an updated version of my character intersection chart which shows all the character intersections in Let the Great World Spin.

Part III

The prologue of Let the Great World Spin begins with a shocking scene of Petit walking on a tightrope between the World Trade Centers. In this scene, New York City seems crowded, chaotic, and overwhelming. Let the Great World Spin terminates in a quiet scene with Jaslyn sitting on her dying friend Claire’s bed. Between these two scenes Colum McCann bridges all of New York, and we the readers feel as if we know New York, the overwhelming city, inside and out. Petit’s walk at the beginning of the book symbolizes the journey through New York City McCann takes the reader on. It seems impossible to walk between the World Trade Centers on tightrope, but Petit does it. It seems impossible to understand New York City, but by the end of Let the Great World Spin we understand a good portion of the city.

A bridge that surprised me in Let the Great World Spin was the bridge between Ciaran and Lara. I was shocked that Ciaran and Lara could bridge Corrigan’s death and become close. While I’m glad that Ciaran and Lara aren’t bitter and filled with hate for one another, their friendship still feels strange and unnatural to me.

At the end of the Let the Great World Spin on page 346, Jaslyn describes seeing a coyote crossing the Major Deegan Expressway. I was astonished and excited to find this event in Let the Great World Spin. The tale of the coyote that crossed the Deegan is basically a legend among the scientists I worked with on the Gotham Coyote Project, and it was fun to read about this event in an unexpected place! Jaslyn’s account of the urban coyote also illustrates how nature bridges New York City. We often think of cities as removed from nature, but by showing a coyote heading toward New York City, McCann demonstrates how integrated cities and nature are. Even in the most urbanized and gritty areas, nature bridges the city.