New York Myths

Union Square

"I consider almost everything that is often said about New York to be false. To begin with, the city is not that big or that worldly. An astonishing number of people who live there rarely leave their borough, let alone the country."

Eula Biss, Notes from No Man's Land

Wonderfully Miserable

"I noticed during my time in New York that many of the people I met there had a habit of describing how miserable they were, then arguing that they couldn't leave the city because it was so wonderful."
Eula Biss, Notes from No Man's Land

Drudgery

Canal Street subway station

"For most people, even the elite, it is a city of drudgery. You sweat in the hot subway station, then you shiver in the crowded train, then you walk for ten blocks without an umbrella through a pounding summer thunderstorm . . . and you do this with desperation, because you have no other obvious choice. You do it every day."
Eula Biss, Notes from No Man's Land

Electrified

Con Ed Plant

"Every nerve in my body was electrified by New York. I was on an endless sidewalk surrounded by bare bulbs and whistles and sudden flocks of pigeons and huge fading stretches of concrete. I believe that I will never feel like that again—so raw and so moved."
Eula Biss, Notes from No Man's Land