Gothamist: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

Shurize

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:12:43 -0500

I read this book in class. It was amazing. I cant belive he actually laid on the rope.

Lial

Mon, 20 Sep 2004 10:09:47 -0500

Our class read the book and loved it, but when we tried to go on line and research it we did not find a lot!! It was such a great book but our class wants more info!!

Sterling

Wed, 14 Jan 2004 00:47:54 -0500

I've always been more of an Owen Quinn fan.

rion

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 23:35:53 -0500

no doubt, Philippe Petit rocks.

Hoofin

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:14:41 -0500

I remember when this guy did the high wire act. (I think I was nine or ten). At first, everyone said he was a nut. Only weeks or months later, did he become the daring guy that crossed the twin towers on a tightrope. Same thing with the fella who used suction cups to climb up it in 1977(?). It only became glamorized later. People miss those buildings, but when they first went up, they were seen as a controversial government works project. The two acrobats helped to humanize the structures in the eyes of the general public.

jake

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:37:13 -0500

oh, and of course, petit was one of my idols when i was a juggler- he represented everything elegant that i saw in the art. of course, i never got past five.

jake

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:28:14 -0500

another interesting philippe petit fact: in the early 1970s, paul auster was living in france and witnessed petit setting up his famous notre dame tower walk. they became good friends, and a few years later, auster translated and wrote the introduction for petit's famous book "on the high wire". i found this quote from an article on auster: "In deliberating a universe of cruel chance, Auster has expressed admiration for the high-wire artist Philippe Petit and has translated On The High Wire, a kind of manifesto of Petit's art. High wire walking is not as might be thought an art of death but an art of life, of life lived to its extreme possibilities � life which is unafraid and uncompromising in its confrontation/relationship with death. On each occasion that Petit performs he takes life and lives it in all its exhilarating immediacy. Petit's aesthetic is an exemplary quest, a search for a type of perfection, as Auster says, "...anyone who has ever made personal sacrifices for an art or an idea will have no trouble understanding what it is about". In essence one might conjecture that this constitutes the fundamentals of art � useless, beautiful, extraordinary but somehow life enhancing."

karatechimp

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:06:08 -0500

Mordicai was on the today show this morning. The drawings were very impressive with amazing perspective.