Author: Ivan Pena

Miró Miró On the Wall

When I first saw the title of the chapter, the first thing I thought of the famous line from Snow White where the Evil Queen asks here mirror “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” However instead of “mirror”, McCann replaces it with Miró. Upon doing some research, I found that Miró refers to Spanish artist Joan Miró who was a part of the Surrealism and Cubism movements. The title is tied to Claire, a wealthy woman living in Manhattan with her husband Solomon, who is a part of a group of women that have lost sons in the Vietnam War. The line refers to her insecurities being the wealthiest woman in the group and thinking what the other women will think of her once they see how she lives and her socio-economic status. The way I interpreted the use of Miró in the title is that it reflects the almost surreal feel of the time that the women spent in Claire’s home. This is because she was constantly distracted by her own worries and the women were also distracted by the tightrope walker, so it all seemed like a blur, as if there were some aspects that were real but didn’t feel real, similar to the ideas of Surrealism, in which aspects of reality and aspects of the mind or imagination are merged into one.

Primary Characters:

  • Ciaran and Corrigan (John A. Corrigan)
  • Tillie, Jazzlyn, Angie
  • Adelita
  • Claire and Solomon Soderberg, and their son Joshua Soderberg
  • Gloria and the women (Marcia, Janet, Jacqueline)
  • Lara and Blaine
  • Birdhouse the pimp
  • Sam the hacker
  • Fernando
  • Phillipe Petit and his crew.

Overall there have been at least 50 interactions between the characters of the book. In doing this, McCann creates a very vivid and interconnected world, which is an aspect that New York City actually has; in including all these interactions, he manages to capture the lively spirit of the city, as well as making the world seem vast, yet so small at the same time.

A very interesting intersection of characters that I saw was the one between Lara and Corrigan and Jazzlyn on the FDR. When I first read Chapter 1, I was shocked by the ending and it left me with so many questions about how and why Corrigan and Jazzlyn met the tragic fate they did. In “A Fear of Love”, we got to see Blaine hit Corrigan and Jazzlyn’s car, sending them to their deaths. I was angered by their recklessness at first, but in a way I also felt relieved because I knew then that Corrigan and Jazzlyn’s story had not ended at that moment. Lara’s desperation and guilt about the death of Corrigan and Jazzlyn expanded upon the story laid out in the first chapter and created many more connections between the characters. McCann’s use of different perspectives makes each story much more intruiging and more captivating because each character draws you into their own world and we get to see how they each see the world they live in, despite the fact that they are all present in the same city.

From the streets of NYC, to Dublin and back.

The novel Let the Great World Spin opens up with the prologue titled “Those Who Saw Him Rushed”, in which McCann introduces the reader to the busy streets of New York City in the downtown area of Manhattan. He also describes vividly the activities of the people as they’re beginning their day in the early morning around “seven forty-seven”, as he puts it. In actuality, the prologue is describing the events surrounding the stunt that French high-wire artist Philippe Petit conducted on a tight-rope as he walked between the Twin Towers on the morning of August 7th, 1974. From this moment to the end of the first chapter, McCann takes the reader on a wild journey from the streets of Manhattan, the streets of Dublin, Ireland, to the late 20th Century housing projects of the Bronx.

Having read the first few parts of the novel, it is clear that McCann draws the reader in into the world he creates through his extensive use of vivid details. He is able to bring to life his characters and his settings through this. So far, I am captivated by his world and the voice that he gives his characters as well as the unique personalities they have and the way that they slowly develop into something much more. I am very interested in the complexity of Corrigan’s character because there seem to be so many layers to him. Although his journey ends up in tragedy, it is still interesting watching him grow and develop through the eyes of his own brother. I don’t feel that any certain character is alienated as they all have some share into the story, but I do feel that their mother also had a sense of mystery and complexity to her, especially with the incident of the man in the streets.

Dilemma

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a “dilemma” can be defined as “an argument presenting two or more equally conclusive alternatives against an opponent”.  To me it is a complex problem involving multiple solutions, thus making it difficult to resolve. The first time I read the article, it didn’t strike to me as such a huge deal that Western poets were struggling with the ideals of romantic consciousness and I wondered why Diamond had used “dilemma” rather than a simpler term such as “challenge” or “problem”. After rereading it a few more times, I realized that the “dilemma” that the dilemma encountered is not just about the inability for Western poets to  capture the main romantic consciousness, but also the complexity of what beauty is. Diamond previously stated that “beauty is ethnocentric”, meaning that it is different to different cultures. Further along he describes the various aspects that can be attributed to beauty such as exaggerated features, or suppressed features, harmony and disharmonies, etc. All these different features make up what beauty is, however this does not mean that beauty itself has a certain standard, or “form” as Plato would have once said. What I mean by this is that beauty has certain qualities that appeal to us, but it does not have a certain essence or image that pops into your head when someone says “beauty”, as is the case with more ground objects like a table or a home. This complexity is what the “dilemma” refers to in the overall text.