Lesson 14

Loving and Hating New York

Teaching Aims

• Read between lines and understand the text properly

• Appreciate the text from different perspectives

• Understand difficult words and expressions

• Understand rhetorical devices

Special difficulties

• Paraphrasing• Americanism• Figures of speech • Style and Language

Features• Methods to develop the

central idea of a paragraph: topic sentence

Teaching Procedures

• Background information• Structure analysis• Text analysis• Writing style• Rhetorical devices• Questions for reflection

Background information

Thomas Griffith (1915-2002)

• American writer and editor• press columnist, Time

magazine since 1974 • staff contributor, Fortune

magazine; • columnist, Atlantic Monthly. • uprooted westerner who now

calls New York home

• Publications: • The Waist-High Culture• How True? --A Sceptic 's

Guide to Believing the News.

• Quotes:• Journalism as theater is what

TV news is. • Journalism is in fact history on

the run. • The news is staged,

anticipated, reported, analyzed until all interest is wrung from it and abandoned for some new novelty.

New York

• The Big Apple• Gotham

• The City That Never Sleeps• The Capital of The World

• The Empire City• The City So Nice ： They

Named It Twice

NEW YORK BOROUGHS

Manhattan• an island and borough of New

York City in New York Bay, between the Hudson River and the East River. It is the business and cultural centre of New York City. When people say that they have visited New York, they often mean that they have been to Manhattan.

http://www.imagewa.com/Photo/455/34553.html

Queens• one of the five boroughs of

New York City, at the western end of Long Island, where a lot of poorer people live

Brooklyn

• New York City's most populous borough

• With its own personality characterized by cultural diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods, and a unique architectural heritage.

Bronx• northernmost borough, • the only one situated on the

mainland (the others are on islands)

• ranking fourth of the five boroughs.

Staten Island

• the least populated of the five boroughs

• the most suburban

The Upper East Side

• in Manhattan between Central Park and the East River

• most expensive real estate in the United States

• the most expensive townhouse is listed for $75 million

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Photograph_of_Fifth_Avenue_from_the_Metropolitan%E2%80%94New_York_City.jpg

Structure analysis

• Para.1-5: General introduction —New York’s place in today’s world

• Para 6-para 18: Exposition of the central idea

• Para 19-para 22: New York’s cultural pluralism

Text analysis

Part 1• Nowadays New York is out of

phase with American taste as often as it is out of step with American politics.

• a place to escape Common Denominator Land

• The title states the main thesis of the article which is more specifically reiterated by the first sentence of the last paragraph.

• Big Apple, the mighty: New York

• Many advertising campaigns publicly praise New York and many New Yorkers wear T-shirts with a heart design and the words “I love New York” printed on it. These actions only show how far the great city of New York has fallen. It is pitiful to see how desperately New York is trying to regain her lost prestige and status.

• bush: rustic, belonging to small towns

• In the past New York never boasted of its greatness, though other cities often did so, for bragging was done only by small provincial towns.

• beget: bring into being/ produce

• New York is no longer the leading (the biggest and best) city in the US, at least if being the leading city means a city that sets the styles and trends of the nation.

• out-of-phase: (physics) not in a state of exactly parallel movements

• out-of-step: not conforming at rhythm; not in conformity of agreement

• Nowadays New York cannot understand nor follow the taste of the American people and is often in disagreement with politics.

• It refused too long to accept the style of clothes designed for informal occasions or use which more and more people were beginning to wear and so lost its undisputed leadership in setting the fashion in the US.

• holdout: (Americanism) a place that holds out/ continue resistance/ stand firm/ not yield

• Since New York is no longer looked up to or copied as the undisputed fashion authority, it now boasts that it is a city that resists the prevailing trends (styles, fashion) of America, that it is a place where people can escape from uniformity and commonness.

• pacesetter: a person, group, or thing that leads the way or serves as a model

• The things that New York lacks to make it a leading or model city are more and more apparent now.

• Arturo Toscannini • One of the greatest

opera and concert directors of all time, internationally known for his forcefulness and style of conducting, which led to near-perfection in his work.

• NBC: National Broadcasting Company

• live: transmitted during the actual performance

• preempt: (radio and TV) to replace (a regularly scheduled program)

• airway: an area of the sky that is regularly used by planes

• alliteration, cloned and canned; and metaphor, comparing the situation comedies produced to plants or animals derived asexually from a single individual. Situation comedies made in Hollywood and the actual performance of Johnny Carson now replace the scheduled radio and TV programs from California.

• Tin Pan Alley: an area in New York, where there were many songwriters, publishers of popular music.

• metonymy, Tin Pan Alley standing for “center of popular music”. The center of popular music has moved from Tin Pan Alley in New York to Nashville

• No nightclubs in Manhattan could afford the money to hire top notch singers and entertainers.

• superdome: gymnasium• New York city was never a

good place for holding conventions because the city was unfriendly, unsafe, overcrowded, and expensive.

• comeback: (Americanism) if a person, activity, style etc makes a comeback, they become popular again after being unpopular for a long time

• New York is regaining somewhat its status as a city that attracts tourists.

• take … to: become fond of; care for; be attracted to

• aloof: at a distance but in view or apart; removed

• Europeans are more readily attracted than Americans by New York because the Europeans like the complicated situation brought about by so many nationalities living together, the standards that still exist in this city so far away from Europe and the mixture of so many foreigners.

Madison Avenue

The Fifth Avenue

• bilk: cheat or swindle; defraud• frivolous: not serious or

sensible, especially in a way that is not suitable for a particular occasion

• Perhaps some of these Europeans take to New York because they feel reassured when they see so many jewelers, shoe stores, and designer shops bearing familiar international names on Madison and Fifth avenues. There are many fashionable shops on Madison and Fifth avenues. These shops are set up to cheat and gratify the vanity of the silly rich people.

• charged: tense; intense• dynamism: the quality of

being energetic, vigorous, etc.• But it is not true (that

Europeans take to New York because they are reassured by the familiar international names); what most excites Europeans is the city’s tense, restless atmosphere, its crude energy and vigor.

Questions

• 1. In what fields can New York no longer be regarded as the leading American city?

• 2.   Why do many Europeans call New York their favorite city?

Part 2• the city’s bright glow

arrogantly obscures the heavens

• contention: argument and disagreement between people

• articulate: able to talk easily and effectively about things, especially difficult subjects

• put-down: (American slang) a belittling remark or crushing retort

• whaddya gonna do: The words accompanying the loser’s shrug.

• And since New York has many losers who express their defeat loudly and clearly, it also has to do with mockery, belittling remarks and the loser’s shrug of resignation.

• foothold: a secure position from which it is difficult to be dislodged

• billing: the listing of the actors’ names on a poster or circular advertising a play

• In New York people are always fighting for seats on subway trains, trying to catch the attention of a cabdriver, a clerk, or a waiter, constantly fighting for a secure social position, a chance (to succeed), a house in a better residential area, or a larger poster for one’s name to appear in.

• jostling proximity: so close as to bump and push each other

• frustrated majority: most of the people in New York who belong to the defeated

• A person who wins in New York is constantly disturbed by fear and anxiety (because he is afraid of losing what he has won in the fierce competition); a person who loses has to live among the defeated, who are in the majority in New York.

• metaphor, comparing New York to Mecca; and metonymy, Mecca standing for a place of holy pilgrimage, of a place one yearns to go to. I’ve never regarded New York as a holy place, a place that I yearned to go to.

• qualified: limited; modified• The chance to enjoy the

pleasures of nature is very limited.

• At night the city of New York is aglow with lights and seems proudly and haughtily to darken the night sky. One never sees a star-filled sky because the bright glow dims the light of the stars.

• tint: slightly change the colour

• gaudy: (disapproval) too bright and look cheap

• jagged: have sharp projecting points (made by the towering skyscrapers)

• skyline: the outline, as of a city, seen against the sky

• Sunsets can be unusually beautiful: filling the sky over the Jersey meadows with all shades of orange and red colors and these bright and showy colors are reflected in a thousand windows on Manhattan’s jagged skyline.

• gamely: willingly to try something dangerous, new, or difficult

• encroaching cement: the cemented pavement gradually expanding to occupy the space allotted to the trees planted on the sidewalks

• personification, sidewalk trees treated as human beings. One has just to look at the frail, delicate sidewalk trees courageously struggling against encroaching cement and petrol fumes to see that nature constantly surrenders to man in New York.

• displaced: a person forced from his country, especially as a result of war and left homeless elsewhere

• The old white people sitting on park benched appear to be homeless and look out of place sitting there.

• This place has become much more like an untidy, rowdy carnival than a quiet, restful park.

• It was not the fascinating charm of the distant city, but the opportunity which I would find there to practice the kind of journalism I wanted drew me to New York.

• measure up: (Americanism) to prove to be competent or qualified

• I wasn’t even sure how competent or qualified I would be in New York when I was compared with those who had received much better education in more prestigious universities like Yale, Harvard, etc.

• local breed: people born and brought up in the place (New York)

• for heaven’s sake!: an exclamation of surprise, annoyance, etc.

• I wasn’t even sure whether I could compete against the sons of immigrants who were born and brought up in New York. These people are tough, intellectual and strongly driven by only one aim or purpose (to become a successful writer or journalist). Among them one finds people like Alfred Kazin, who (just imagine!) plays for pastime such difficult violin pieces as Bach’s Unaccompanied Partitas. (This shows how “intellectual” the sons of immigrants are.)

• banal: trivial• marketable: easy to sell;

attractive to customers or employers

• Many young people are drawn to New York because they can test themselves there and because they are afraid of surrendering to their most common and easily sold talents. (perhaps what Griffith is trying to say is that many young people are drawn to New York because they feel the fierce competition and the high

• standards of excellence demanded there could bring out the best in them. Whereas in their own small city they could easily earn a living with any common talent they may possess.)

• constrict: limit someone's freedom to do what they want

• The point mentioned in the above sentence and the company of many other young people, running away from something that limits and holds them in, draw them to New York.

• squalor: dirty and unpleasant conditions

• It cannot be the good living conditions that draws these young people to New York, for only a memory cherished with unreasoning affection can overlook the inconvenience, risk, and squalor to be found there.

• If young actors or singers can’t find jobs on Broadway, they may have a chance to act or sing in plays shown on Off-Broadway or on off-off-Broadway.

• plush: (American slang) luxurious, as in furnishings

• grubby: rather dirty• precincts: environs;

neighborhood

• If painter scorn to have their works exhibited (for sale) in the luxurious art galleries on Madison Avenue, then high-class dealers on Madison Avenue will open up shops in the mean, dirty neighborhood of Soho for these painters.

• But a pure and wholehearted devotion to a Bohemain life style can be exaggerated.

• subculture: the distinct cultural patterns of a group (within a society) of persons of the same age, social or economic status, ethnic background, etc.

• As these young writers and artists have distinct cultural patterns of their own, many businessmen open up profitable boutiques and coffeehouses to cater to their special tastes and interests.

• estranged: alienated

• (The reference of “it” in this sentence is not clear.) (This sentence may mean): the present generation is not much different from those young writers or artists who lived here during the depression; (or it may mean): their subculture is not much different from the cultural pattern of ordinary people.

• ratify: make officially valid• In both these roles of banking

and communications headquarters, New York starts or originates very few things but gives its stamp of approval to many things created by people in other parts of the country.

• New York judges or appraises the films, the plays, the music, the books that others have created (or in other words it “ratifies”). However the standards that New York calls forth or puts forward are often deplored or ignored by the rest of the country.

• catchy: easily caught up and remembered

• jingle: a verse that jingles; jingling arrangement of words or syllables

• expense-account: (Americanism) an arrangement whereby certain expenses of an employees in connection with his work are paid for by his employer.

• All the big advertising agencies are also here in New York. They try to find out what the markets (or purchasers) want and so be able to devise advertisements with a jingling arrangement of words that people easily catch up and remember. These ads will persuade millions of people to buy from Burger King instead

• of from McDonal’s. The “creative director” i.e. the person who created the catchy jingles in the ad agency will be rewarded handsomely and will be able to dine at the Agency’s expense at the expensive French restaurants in Manhattan.

• Adman: (Americanism) a man whose work or business is advertising

• ancillary: connected with or supporting something else, but less important than it

• brittle: hard but easily broken

• The bankers and the admen, the marketing specialists and a thousand well-paid people helping them really give New York its hard sharp quality. These men work hard to gratify the needs and desires of a wide American public. These men show respect to the great number of people that make up the American public (they are

• able to reap huge profits only because of their great number) but they do not have to share the tastes of these people (the ordinary people buy a hamburger from McDonald’s or Burger King, whereas the successful businessman lunches in Manhattan’s expense account French restaurants).

• condescending: behaving as though you think you are better, more intelligent, or more important than other people - used to show disapproval

• transferred epithet, not the view but the rich businessmen are “condescending”. These rich businessmen looking down patronizingly from their offices high up on the fiftieth floor of a skyscraper cannot feel they have anything in common with the crowd of ordinary people walking in the streets below.

• The title states the main thesis of the article which is more specifically reiterated by the first sentence of the last paragraph.

Questions

• 1. In what fields can New York no longer be regarded as the leading American city?

• 2.   Why do many Europeans call New York their favorite city?

• 3.   Why did the writer go and live in New York?

• 4.   What technique does the writer use to develop his main theme? Is the technique effective? Cite examples.

• 5.   Does the writer really both love and hate New York? Cite examples to back up your analysis.

• 6.   Explain fully the following sentence from paragraph 11: “A market for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.”

Part 3

Questions

• 1. In what fields can New York no longer be regarded as the leading American city?

• 2.   Why do many Europeans call New York their favorite city?

• 3.   Why did the writer go and live in New York?

• 4.   What technique does the writer use to develop his main theme? Is the technique effective? Cite examples.

• 5.   Does the writer really both love and hate New York? Cite examples to back up your analysis.

• 6.   Explain fully the following sentence from paragraph 11: “A market for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.”

Writing style

• Type of literature: exposition• The thesis stated in the title of

the essay • The thesis developed by both

objective and emotional description of New York and the life and struggle of New Yorkers

• The structural organization of this essay: clear and simple

• --- paras. 1-5 acting as a general introduction

• --- the last sentence in the 5th para. functioning as a transition to the actual description of New York city

• Full of American English terms, phrases and constructions

Rhetorical devices

metaphor

• while sitcoms cloned and canned in Hollywood

personification

metonymy

• Tin Pan Alley has moved to Nashville and Hollywood.

transferred epithet

alliteration

• Nowadays New York is out of phase with American taste as often as it is out of step with American politics.

• while sitcoms cloned and canned in Hollywood

simile

synecdoche

 irony

euphemism

Questions for reflection

• Why does a New Yorker who sees all the faults of the city still prefer to live in it?

• In what respects is New York still regarded as the leading American city?

• 1. In what fields can New York no longer be regarded as the leading American city?

• 2.   Why do many Europeans call New York their favorite city?

• 3.   Why did the writer go and live in New York?

• 4.   What technique does the writer use to develop his main theme? Is the technique effective? Cite examples.

• 5.   Does the writer really both love and hate New York? Cite examples to back up your analysis.

• 6.   Explain fully the following sentence from paragraph 11: “A market for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.”