I'll be flying home tomorrow morning after an enjoyable visit with Jenny. I took Jenny and Wendy Solem to an NBA game at Madison Square Gardens- Knicks vs Milwaukee Bucks yesterday. Afterwards, Jenny and I had early dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant. Today Jenny and I visited the Neue Gallerie and saw a powerful exhibit of early 20th Century German and Austrian art featuring several iconic paintings by Gustav Klimt as well as works by Kandinski, Dix and others. I got Jenny started on Foyle's War and she has taken to it, binge watching all the way through World War 2. I alternated viewing with her and listening to the Audible version of The City We Became, finishing it this afternoon. I then read some reviews, all of which were very favorable. I liked the novel and found it stimulating, as noted (I think) in my prior post. For some reason, I took notes on each chapter in a manner similar to my method of taking clinical notes during my professional career. I summarized the action impressionistically, copied down some memorable quotes and made a few observations. What purpose did this serve? I'm not sure- maybe to help me remember the story later, maybe thinking it would internalize my thoughts for the "book club" meeting with Amy, Donna and Joshua on Saturday. Perhaps I'll post them as a blog entry.Perhaps I'll revisit them at some point. OK, I'm going to add them to this post!
The city we became: Notes
Read by Robin Miles
Chapter 1.
The reader sounds like a black female. The story is poetic and reminiscent of an acid trip. Two characters open the story, a young kid and Paulo, an old, portly Hispanic mystic who smokes and drinks coffee. This kid is chased all over midtown by the monstrous Mega-cop, a merging of two NYPD officers. He escapes and defeats an outbreak of an evil force by running across the FDR Freeway.
Chapter 2.
A new character appears, a preppy black man in his 20s, coming to New York for grad school. He leaves the subway and has an apparent psychotic episode (“blackout or delusion or whatever it is”). He hears the voice of the first narrator telling him “Fuck you! This city belongs to me!” Then, he encounters Douglas who is a plumber. Two Asian strangers assist him. He’s afraid of being committed to a hospital. He keeps oscillating between sanity and psychosis. He can’t remember his name or where he was going to school. He picks the name Manny (i.e., the fluffy cat)! It’s short for Manhattan. It emerges he is the avatar of the borough, its human embodiment. He jumps into a Checker Cab replica driven by a very young woman named Madison.
“He’s just seeing multiple juxtaposed realities while being plagued by inexplicable compulsions and phantom sensations.”
The borough of Manhattan is ‘the nation”s shrine to unrestricted predatory capitalism.”
A BMW with jellyfish tendrils appears. Tendrils explode out of the pavement forming a tower of “ick." He's menaced by a “spectral hedgehog.” Everything is him. Something is blocking the flow of the city. The total strangers are his allies. Manny and Madison manage to defeat the alien force.
“from the soles of his feet to the roots of his hair.”
Chapter 3. Manny is dropped off at an apartment by Madison where he encounters a transexual “bloke in progress” male Asian roommate with a British accent named Bel who discloses they are both Ph.D. candidates in Critical Theory at Columbia University. They met on Skype a month earlier. They take a walk in Inwood Hill Park at the alleged location of the purchase of Manhattan from the indigenous people where they encounter a white female embodiment of the evil force with the tendrils. ...“but, mind-controlling parasitic otherworldly entities are the rudest of tourists” and they aren’t welcome. Brooklyn Thomason, Esq. appears and helps eradicate the alien force that possesses the white woman. She was rapper MC Free in her previous life. Now she is on the City Council.
Chapter 4. A woman with a pixie cut dressed all in white rescues Aislyn Houlihan from her panic episode while trying to board the Staten Island Ferry. What happens if the “Primary avatar finally wakes up?” “Let’s get started on temporarily saving this local node of your consensus reality from existential annihilation, why don’t we?“ “Six of you are more in charge than the rest and those six are highly attuned to one another, naturally, which means finding one of you will help me find the rest of you.”
The woman in white claims to be responsible for the collapse of the Williamsburg Bridge in the Manhattan chase episode, so is she the embodiment of the evil force or is she here to save the city from it? She discloses being the woman at the park who accosted Manny and Bel as well as being the force that Manny defeated with the lady's umbrella. She asks Aislyn, “Why did the others leave you unprotected?” “That damned Sao Paulo is here somewhere- he must be guarding the primary from me!” But Manhattan and Brooklyn haven’t thought about helping Aislyn. The Primary (manifesting the unity of the five boroughs) is the kid from Chapter 1. There must be some kind of city sonar that guides them to one another, “You don’t fucking matter- nobody gives a shit!” “See something, say something” if you see a white fern frond, says the WIW. The lady’s name? Whispered in Aislyn’s ear. Welts break out on Aislyn's arms. She forgets the woman and what just happened until 10 minutes into the bus ride to her home. She can only recall the name started with an R followed by “an incomprehensible blur of foreign sounds.” Island settles on “Rosey” like Rosey the Riveter.
Sao Paulo visits Inwood Hill Park seeking clues to what is happening. New York is a “reeking parking lot and glorified shopping mall.” Paolo senses a battle has taken place here. Money is strewn around the ground, a construct used to aim the power of the city at “the enemy.” Twenty people, mostly white and well-dressed (all white), are milling around the rock monument. They are talking but not to one another- to the air, cell phones, a little dog. Paulo takes a cell photo that alerts to crowd to his presence. They fall silent and he exits. He checks the photo and finds every face is distorted with a warping of the air behind their heads. Paulo goes to a little cafe and orders food. He texts the photo to the international phone number and asks for help.
Chapter 5. The toilet stall of doom. Bronca, a 70ish Lesbian Lanape Native American artist from the Bronx is that borough's avatar. She encounters the white alien woman in the bathroom of her publicly funded art center. She defeats the WIW by kicking in the door.
Chapter 6. Quest for Queens. Still the same day. Manny and Brooklyn are waiting for a bus to go looking for the avatar of Queens. “Gravitic shifts” are taking place in “weird New York.” “Grandmaster Flash could save me from the alien feather monsters.” Who can see the tendrils besides the avatars? Manny has to learn how to be a New Yorker. Brooklyn could teach him. He resents being in this position. He could flee and someone else would take his place. “All of this is just the precursor to something much bigger.” “Tell me about New York, then.” Brooklyn explains about leaving her career as MC Free to do things that actually matter. She shows him the subway map of NYC. Brooklyn and Queens are on the south end of Long Island, “This map is bullshit.” “What people think about us isn’t who really are.” “Queens is what’s left of old New York.” Long Island City. Descriptions of what kind of people Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island are going to be. “Brooklyn is doing its own thing.” As they’re riding the bus they feel vibes emanating from Queens. They find a photo on social media with search terms “Queens weird.” Manny sees the truth is an abstract mural made by Branca (“creative with an attitude”).
Chapter 7. The inter dimensional art critic, Dr. White.
Branca (Pink Crawfish-Older Lesbian support group), Jess (mean-ass Jewish lady), Vanessa, Y Jing (?). A group of young white bearded misogynistic racist male artists who produce offensive exploitive, pornographic crap are at the center seeking an exhibit. “Did Four-Chan put you up to this or did you come up with it on your own.” “We don’t do bigotry!” They insist upon showing their best piece “Dangerous Mental Machines” which turns out to be true art of remarkable quality. Something strange happens as they look at it. “What’s happened here is an attack,” HP Lovecraft thought Asians don’t have souls. Strawberry man-bun has a white string protruding from his ankle that extends and contracts as Branca observes. He admits working for the toilet stall lady. A number of displaced key holder artists sleep at the center. A reverse image search of their logo which turns out to belong to the “alt artistes.” “White dude whining is a growth industry.”
Chapter 8.
Padmini is Queens, an overweight, overworked young mathematician in grad school. She happens to be looking at the Manhattan skyline when she sees a gigantic translucent tentacle rising up and destroying the Williamsburg Bridge. She thinks it’s an illusion and a hoax. But it’s not. Then something weird happens to the bottom of the kiddie pool in the yard next door. Intuitively Queens knows the kids in the pool must not touch the bottom of the pool. She turns into a bullet flying down a tunnel to grab the boys out of the pool. She gets one boy out of the pool but he fights with her and stops her from getting the second one. That one touches the bottom and is grabbed by gray tentacles that threaten to envelop the boy entirely. Queens frees him by visualizing flow dynamics equations. Shortly after defeating the pool entity, Manny and Brooklyn show up at her apartment. It was “something immense and inhuman that almost broke through.” They form an alliance. They get a glimpse of the Primary New York. Manny is choosing not to know his actual name and identity. “I used to hurt people.” It was a job. He decided not to be that person any more and moved to New York. They all go to Brooklyn’s two brownstone houses that are worth millions now. Sao Paulo finds Padmini’s house and speaks to her Aunt Ashwara who gives him minimal info about what has happened. There is a “latent strengthening effect” of calling his International phone number. Paulo decides to go find Staten Island and to meet the trio at Brooklyn’s location the next day.
Chapter 9. No sleep in or near Brooklyn
Brooklyn repels the white x-spiders from the brownstone where her daughter JoJo and father live by rapping. Exhausted, she sleeps until late the next afternoon where she finds they’ve gotten an eviction notice. The Better New York Foundation now owns it.
Chapter 10. A better NY is in sight.
The Board rejects $23M from Dr. White to sell out to the alt artistes. Branca spends the night with the key holders. A more authentic Dr. White appears during the night. White generates scary murals all over the walls. “There’s no need for you and your favorites to die in the conflagration that is to come.” The City painted the portrait of the Primary sleeping on newspapers. Why is the City’s avatar sleeping? “Because NY is too much for one person to embody. Because the City needed him and he did it anyway.” The Primary needs the Five to revive him so he can awaken. “You just threatened the existence of an infinity of dimensions.” Branca again defeats the White Woman who steps away into another dimension leaving the artistes lying about. She summons the police who reluctantly arrest the artistes for vandalism and breaking and entering. After the dust settles, Manny, Queens and Brooklyn show up at her office grinning
Chapter 11. Make Staten Island great against Sao Paulo.
Aislyn is high on Benadryl taken to treat the breakout of hives triggered at the ferry landing. She is sitting on the roof in a reverie. Her mother, Kendra, has joined her. Her father Matthew brings Connell, a disgusting creep who is under the control of Dr. White, home as a guest. Connell makes a gross pass at Aislyn during which he insults Staten Island, causing her to unleash the power of the Island at him, driving him backwards into to neighbor’s hedge. Aislyn walks away from the house into the night, A car approaches slowly and stops. Sao Paulo is the driver. He greets her with the question, “Staten Island? Get in!” She starts to comply but his car is immediately engulfed in white fronds. Dr. White appears behind her wearing a track suit. The three confront one another. Paulo’s cigarette smoke dispels the white fronds. He informs Aislyn of her role in the New York mission and offers to help. Aislyn, however, views Paolo as a foreign intruder and blasts him with her Staten Island power. Connell claims he was jumped by a big black guy. Aislyn is empowered to stand up for herself but rejects the idea of being allied with the rest of the City.
Chapter 12. About that teamwork thing.
Branca doesn’t like the other boroughs, especially, Brooklyn. “I don’t need you! I handled it by myself and you weren’t around.” The Bronx don’t trust nobody. Branca recognizes Brooklyn as the former MC Free. After an initial refusal, Branca decides to cooperate. Manny realizes his role is to protect the Primary. It is revealed that when a city becomes whole, infinite alternate universes are annihilated. Some things must die so others may live. They confer on whether to go look for Staten Island or for the Primary. Then, Branca takes them on a perspective view of the Multiverse where various emergent cities are shining points of light, then back to the hiding place of the Primary avatar. Then they all conk out, They come to when the avatar of another avatar, Hong Kong, comes in carrying Sao Paulo over his shoulder. Sao Paulo has been injured from the attack by Staten Island on her own turf. He is revived by a brigadeiro, a Brazilian candy, Vanessa happens to have in the frig. They determine the Primary is sleeping in the decommissioned Old City Hall subway station.
Chapter 13. They don’t have cities there.
A gigantic white column has appeared in Aislyn’s front yard. The Woman in White explains it’s an adapter cable connecting “my Universe to yours.” The place of stark shadows appears in the rearview mirror. The WIW asserts that once there was only one Universe with no cities. Cities are monstrous and terrifying. A black cylindrical Ding Ho is moving around in the mirror world. “Have read any Lovecraft?” “Algae once nearly wiped out all life on this planet.” Hybrid vigor makes humans stronger. The WIW seems to make internally contradictory assertions. Somehow this wipes out alternate realities in the Multiverse.” I told you to stay in the staging area.” The Audible reader does the voice of the WIW like Ursula the Sea Witch in the Walt Disney cartoon the Little Mermaid.
Chapter 14. Beaux Arts, bitches!
The Better NY Foundation is a subsidiary of TMW, LLC (Total Multiversal War Company). They have demolished the Murderburger Building across the street from the Center and evicted it’s tenants. Evidence of infestation has erupted all around them. Brooklyn has an injunction against being evicted from her brownstones,. TMW has been prepping its campaign for many years. Sao Paulo is wounded but getting healing from the remaining brigadeiros. Hong and Paolo deliver information about the failure of New Orleans and Port au Prince to achieve life, despite their presence as halpers. New York could suffer a massive earthquake and fall into the sea in the event of failure. Personal issues among the avatars are evident. They debate their next step. A wave of illness comes over them. Something is coming up through the floor of the Center. They all run for the exit. Manny thinks about a subway train and it actualizes into a ghost train that sweeps them out of the Center. A massive tendril column bursts out enveloping the Center and rises up into the sky. Then Madison pulls up in her replica Checker Cab. “Can you take us to City Hall Station?” Manny and Paolo get in the cab. Branca has a car she can drive some with.The column seems to breath with an aversive sound, Branca persuades Vanessa to leave to a safe place. The cab leaves for City Hall Station.
Chapter 15. The gauntlet of 2nd Avenue.
Bronca heads toward Staten Island on 2nd Avenue with Hong, Queens and Brooklyn in the car. Queens takes over the GPS with flying fingers. Hong is serious and arrogant. Bronca has a son McSheesh (?) in California who is expecting a child. JoJo’s father died of cancer. “I thought only white people believed everything they heard in rap was real.” Bronca lights into Brooklyn about her former homophobic lyrics. Hong chastises them for arguing, Brooklyn gives a speech about maturing past her abusive rap lyrics and having genuine remorse that mollifies Bronca somewhat. The GPS directs them around an accident on FDR. It turns out to be a right wing protest by racist males called The Men of New York City. “What, a racist white dude march?” “City avatars are usually blessed with good luck,” says Hong. “Gentrification has taken the form of endless coffee shops.” A Starbucks is covered in white tendrils. A big white monster with an open mouth looms ahead causing Bronca to swerve. Another Starbucks jumps at them causing a second swerve without disturbing the zombie customers inside. A third Starbucks drips coffee grounds sludge as it snaps at them. Hong reprimands Bronca for her driving earning a sharp tongued threat. Bronca hits 70 mph in a 25 mph zone with impunity. A snake-like lunging Starbucks bites the car impotently. The Williamsburg Bridge is gone so she heads for the Brooklyn Bridge. As they approach the Island, they are flung into the other world where they can see a new, perfectly circular city has appeared between them and the fifth borough. They realize the WIW is actually another city! “Hong Kong, is it time for the final confrontation, then?” “Smart amoebas are still just amoebas, aren’t they?” The alien city is Rl’yeh from Lovecraft.
Chapter 16 And lo the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty
The Checker cab ride is smooth and uneventful. They get into the decommissioned station without incident. A female cop in plainclothes waves them past the cops guarding the entrance (reminiscent of Obi Wan Kenobe getting past the Imperial Storm Troopers on Tatooine). They get into an empty train that takes off with them and stops at the Old City Hall platform. They find the Primary who is surrounded by a protective force, Their train starts to move on its own motivated by the evil force, Hong and the three female boroughs (Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens) confront the WIW in Aislyn's front yard, Island’s immense power surges: “Get off my lawn!” Aislyn recognizes them as other borough avatars. The 3 boroughs and Hong are flung to the street. Why? “I don’t know you!” “You’re crazy!” Says Queens which incenses Aislyn further. Now they see a brown skinned girl in a dark tunnel covered in slime- it’s Vanessa. Rl’yeh offers a deal that allows the avatars to live out their lives in a pocket Universe. Aislyn realizes Vanessa is in the mouth of a beast that is about to swallow her alive. It’s the Ding Ho! Aislyn closes her eyes and wishes with all her might all of this would just go away. A monster train is coming after Manny, Paolo and the Primary to devour them. Paolo blows smoke at it. Manny goes into a red haze of instinctual rage. Then, Manny turns into King Kong. Back at Staten Island, Aislyn blows everyone except Rl’yeh away entirely. Aislyn feels safe, knowing a whole city loves her, even if it isn’t NY.
Chapter 17.
The female avatars find themselves lying in front of the Wall Street Bull predawn. Vanessa is now with them, hair wet with an alien stink. The poor girl was in Squiggle Bitch’s mouth! Hong Kong is not with them. Where is he? Branca's Jeep was teleported along with the ladies. Branca suggests going to the Primary which Queens finds frightening. Brooklyn uses her political clout to get the group into the City Hall Station. They encounter the remains of the bio-mechanoid train monster which has been ripped apart. Manny is naked and panting. They all try to touch the Primary but each one is stopped. Paolo yanks Vanessa toward the newspaper piles. Above, them, unearthly structures are materializing. But Vanessa has become the avatar of Jersey City, NJ which is now a part of NYC. And somehow the Primary awakens despite the absence of Staten Island. A monumental blast of New York energy is unleashed to cleanse NYC of the Rl'yeh invader, leaving the WIW with only the foothold in Staten Island.
Chapter 19. Coda
The Primary narrates the postscript. If you can’t eat ‘em, join ‘em on Brighton Beach/Coney Island. “Still alive, pass the blunt.” Manny lusts for him, Hong turned up in Hong Kong and then called a summit of the cities in Paris. They can look across the Staten Island which is covered in a cloud of gloom. Paolo is flying back to Brazil leaving his sublet to the Primary until the end of July.
