21st Century Literature discussion

This is a place to discuss Philippe, the chapters that concern him, his appearances in the chapters of others, and his influence on the book as a whole.

It's okay to post spoilers here -- don't read this unless you're happy to read spoilers.

It's quite difficult to imagine the sheer scale of what Philippe (the real life high wire walker) did. The film 'Man on Wire' gives a good idea. This image helps:



The walk in the novel is a fictionalisation of the famous stunt by Philippe Petit in August 1974, but the tightrope walker in the novel remains anonymous, unrelated to any of the other characters.

What do you think the effect is of weaving this historical fact into the fiction of the other characters’ stories?

How important do you think this historic walk is in the novel itself? In what ways would the stories –- and story –- McCann is telling be different if the novel had been set on a different day, or in a different era?

Well, it's pretty clear that McCann is using the tightwalk as the thread linking the other characters in the novel. It's a good metaphor (literally, a thread) and is a convenient way to link disconnected characters in that they all "share" the historical moment (directly or indirectly).

Petit's walk is a fun event to recall. I traveled through WTC that morning, but my timing was such that I did not see it in person. I suspect we'll have one or more posters who did -- maybe some who were there both that morning and again on September 11, 2001. However, McCann's use of the event only partially worked for me. I wanted just a little bit more of Petit's story itself if it was going to be used so centrally in the novel -- it was cleverly used as a thread, but I wondered how deep was the research McCann did not bring to these pages. I found myself wanting more of it. But maybe I haven't figured out the core of the overall story yet, versus the interweaving of the disparate stories that make up NYC.

I don't know the authenticity of these photographs, but they at least give a visual perspective of Petit's feat (there are other You-tube entries):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ddpV...

Ah, here is an astonishing fifteen minute video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAZpp...

I was surprised that, in my view, Petit's feat was not essential to the book, but was just a loose event that occurred on the same day. I felt almost any other event could be used in the same manner (if there had been a great bank robbery, an important inauguration, etc.) The incorporation of this event is what drew me to the book, which is why I was surprised and a bit disappointed.

The contrast between Petit's walk, which was something that seemed magical and wonderful to me, and what turned out to be a collection of pretty depressing realities for the majority of the book's characters was disappointing. It seems to degrade Petit's accomplishment. As if to say, your frivolity is a meaningless side note.

I did like the book; I just did not appreciate this contrast, perhaps because I am such a big fan of frivolous and meaningful side notes :)

If you are inclined to learn more about Philippe Petit, I highly recommend the documentary Man on Wire.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/?...

It's quite some time since I read this book, but much of it has stayed with me - I really loved it. I don't think that Petit's walk was an accidental inclusion. I remember reading it and actually feeling dizzy - as if I was standing on the street looking up at him. It was an amazing thing, really, to feel that physically struck by words! His most recent book, TransAtlantic, starts with the Alcock & Brown transatlantic flight, and again I felt lightheaded (although I feel that LTGWS worked better as a complete novel). Looking back, Seamus Heaney's poem 'Anything Can Happen' comes to mind, which he wrote after 9/11. I'm thinking of the fact that Petit's tightrope walk was such an extraordinary, joyful event, everyone watching from the pavement, transfixed and willing him on. Then you have the horror of what human beings are capable of 9/11. The words 'Anything Can Happen' seem negative, but if humans are capable of creating such horror and pain, they are also capable of creating art. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself very well (I don't think I am!), but I must have a look now for the poem I mentioned.

Oh, and here is the poem:

Anything Can Happen
by Seamus Heaney

Anything can happen. You know how Jupiter
Will mostly wait for clouds to gather head
Before he hurls the lightning? Well, just now
He galloped his thunder cart and his horses

Across a clear blue sky. It shook the earth
And the clogged underearth, the River Styx,
The winding streams, the Atlantic shore itself.
Anything can happen, the tallest towers

Be overturned, those in high places daunted,
Those overlooked regarded. Stropped-beak Fortune
Swoops, making the air gasp, tearing the crest off one,
Setting it down bleeding on the next.

Ground gives. The heaven’s weight
Lifts up off Atlas like a kettle-lid.
Capstones shift, nothing resettles right.
Telluric ash and fire-spores boil away.

Thank you for the poem, Deirdre.

I didn't realize until I went looking for a video of Petit's walk how much that day was contrasted with 9/11. Does anyone know if that was extensive before McCann's book, too?

Thanks for the poem, Diredre. It makes an impact.

I'm interested to hear people's comments on the slightness of the wire-walker's role in the book. For me, this singular point of connection was all that was needed from him and, thrilling as I find his story (I loved 'Man on Wire'), I found I needed no more. It wasn't his story. Like (for a different reason) the planes of 2001, he was the thing that made everyone look up at that point in time, to talk about the same thing, to remember where they were -- to bring themselves out of their individual lives into a sense of sharing the same Earth, the same city, the same life.

I did enjoy the passages reflecting the zen of the moments he spent at that dizzying height, with the world below him, but I almost felt that he was the lens, not the picture. He brought it all into sharper focus.

I kind of feel, myself, that much more of the walker (and he's never actually named in the book) would have stolen the show from the everyday people that the book is about. In this, though it seems I may be in the minority. I wonder what others think?

If you lived here, you sort of remembered what Colum said about Phillipe. I definitely wanted more, even if just something the judge said to his wife about the incident when he got home or the continuity or lack thereof with the "penalty" performance in the Central Park or Phillipe's reaction somewhere -- to the feat, to the sentence, to the performance in Central Park. Colum treated most of his other characters with at least a brief trip inside their heads. Not exactly sure what I wnanted -- but Phillipe's story just "died" for me instead of remaining entangled and a thread with the others. I didn't see "Man on Wire." Maybe Colum wrote for those who experienced that day that way. I found myself going and looking for more. If Phillipe was the lens, the shutter got closed and didn't open again. And I know this is not fair. The book is what Colum has given us and I should attempt to see it as it is, rather than what might have served my whims. But I wanted Phillipe's story to stand on its own as well as be a thread that turned a set of other short stories into a novel.

Terry wrote: "Like (for a different reason) the planes of 2001, he was the thing that made everyone look up at that point in time, to talk about the same thing, to remember where they were -- to bring themselves out of their individual lives into a sense of sharing the same Earth, the same city, the same life."

This was my impression as well.

Philippe also introduces a juxtaposition between that time and the current age. With Vietnam very much a reality, there is still an innocent confidence in how the authorities respond to Philippe. Fast forward, and a philanthropic doctor can't even make a joke about carrying eight pints of liquid without being hauled into the inspection area.

Yes, the walk and 9/11 represent moments of shared reality, but I think they also present us with a sharp contrast between the then and now - a symbol of lost innocence, if you will.

Daniel wrote: "Yes, the walk and 9/11 represent moments of shared reality, but I think they also present us with a sharp contrast between the then and now - a symbol of lost innocence, if you will..."

So what in 25-50 years will be the lost innocence of 2014? (Yes, I am perhaps being cynical, thinking of all the 50-60 years ago emails I see -- like now that WAS innocence. Ah, huh. But, to question myself, if the difference isn't innocence, what is it? That globalization and technology have increased our vulnerabilities in some drastic ways? That sounds too grandiose.) Petit was also a diversion from Watergate; Nixon resigned August 8, 1974. "After defeating State Senator John Marchi in the 1973 mayoral election, [Abraham] Beame faced the worst fiscal crisis in the city's history and spent the bulk of his term attempting to ward off bankruptcy." Wiki entry

Anyone here remember how widely televised Petit's walk was? The 9/11 coverage is vivid to me; the walk is not, but I was working at the time of the earlier event so had less daytime TV access. It fascinated me that in the book Colum has the women go to the roof to attempt to see the event, rather than turn on the TV -- or, again, did I miss something?

I am not sure how well reported it is outside of this area (I am in NJ), but there have been a few stunts done recently from the new Freedom Tower not at all treated with the same whimsy as Petit's walk. The reasons are obvious, but it's still an interesting contrast.

I wonder if the reaction to Petit's stunt, in the book, was criminal and harsh, how would it have effected the over-all narrative of the other characters, if at all? Though I had thought of the walk as insignificant within the book, framing it as something else does make me wonder if I miscalculated the impact. I think if the walk was something that caused fear or terror, the one would have been so much darker (and it was already pretty dark).

News on the recent stunts:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/justice...

Video of the base jump:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz7sxt...

The lost innocence angle is an interesting one. The Great World has spun nearly fifteen thousand times since then, and a lot has changed in a way that it doesn't seem we can go back on. This may be as good a place as any to talk about the title. For me, this fits with the idea that the wirewalk pulls together all beneath it for an extended moment. The world spinning below, carrying all in the same direction at a speed that, for most, reduces their differential motion to an infinitesimal amount in comparison. And it spins on, after all those important events, after the end of each day and each life? I wonder do others see it the same, or do they have a different slant?

Terry wrote: "Thanks for the poem, Diredre. It makes an impact.

I'm interested to hear people's comments on the slightness of the wire-walker's role in the book. For me, this singular point of connection was al..."

I loved the use of the wire-walk as the connecting point of the myriad stories on the book. I also enjoyed the scenes of the wire-walker practicing. I did not need to know anymore of his story. It was enough to have the walk as the connection - the thing they all shared.

When I read the book, I wondered why it was considered a 9/11 book but now I think I understand that. There are very few events in our lives that can, as you said Terry, bring us out of our "individual lives into a sense of sharing the same Earth, the same city, the same life." The wire-walk did that for New Yorkers. 9/11 did it not only for New Yorkers but for the entire country and much of the world. Before that, for me, was the JFK assasination. These events provide a point of shared consciousness. I think when discussing these events, people are likely to talk as much about where they were and what they were doing when it happened than the event itself.

His sections gave me vertigo. I'd have to walk away for a moment.

Linda wrote: "...These events provide a point of shared consciousness. ..."

As Allison pointed out elsewhere, embedding the focal point of the high-wire walk between the Towers in stories of diverse deaths and grieving was both ingenuous and ingenious as linkage and ode to 9/11.

Seventeen red roses still often get placed in a place of remembrance in just my relatively small community on a rail line into the City.