Why do people care so much about an Island?
Whether you love or hate New York, you cannot neglect its existence and its influence on our society and the world. The traffic and sardine-like train cars would be immediately exchanged with something more comfortable by most New Yorkers, but everyone lives and is willing to endure a hectic commute here for a reason. That reason is something Cynthia Ozick fails to input to her piece The Synthetic Sublime. Ozick does not fail to knock the city for it’s developing interests and preference for youth, yet fails to acknowledge what makes the city so great. In fact, she does mention what makes the city great but never makes it an official point.
We are people representing the world all on a tiny island, a spec of the world, and an atom of the universe. While Ozick mentions that other cities like Paris just literally marginalize their poor and working class, they are, in NYC, neighbors of the rich (Ozick 953). All of the worlds major religions are followed on this island, heck, even the minor ones too if you really look. We have dozens of diverse neighborhoods full of history and character. In my opinion Ozick overlooks what makes the city so great and decides to focus on the consequences that come with staying with the times and keeping up with the future.
Ozick notes how several of the landmarks she remembers are no longer standing but I firmly disagree with the importance of preserving them. These theaters, shops, and buildings have history, but one could argue that the most important and iconic ones are still standing. The Statue of Liberty still stands as the unofficial greeter of New York, the Empire State Building is still the core of the Big Apple, and the Brooklyn Bridge still spans with integrity and history. Sure some of the history we cannot visibly see, but the impact of those places on us are exactly what makes this city great, a city where things can impact us. On a 15 by 2 mile island there is only so much we could fit and I sincerely feel the city is maintaining a good balance of the old and new. Keep it up NY!
