Gothamist: Statues Are Forever. Reputations, Not So Much.

MT

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:31:33 -0500

My favorite memorial is the Carrere staircase that leads down into Riverside Park from Riverside drive at around 99th street. I never would have known who he was until I read the sign the Parks Department out there. They should do such extensive bios of everyone they out a statue up of. I'm sure more New Yorkers would love to learn who these people are.

ab

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:36:46 -0500

Uh, regarding the title, did you mean statuTes or statues?

garth

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:06:43 -0500

Good point gabe, I'd thought it was a bit close to Assasination Vacation too and I should have mentioned it. In fact, that similarity is why I suspect he didn't mention the Booth statue and framed the story around the guy in Tompkins square. Oh well, what are you going to do...

gabe

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:01:10 -0500

While the subject is always welcome, I found Elrick's piece to be a fairly obvious appropriation of Sarah Vowell's excellent Assasination Vacation. I think Gothamist has probably read this one too (yes, Edwin Booth would probably be Ms. Vowell's choice). Not that there's anything wrong with revisiting, so to speak, this subject - but somehow treading so closely in Vowell's steps, matching her self-referential voice here and there, without acknowledging the very recent publication (what, 2 years ago) made the whole thing ring a tad tinny. I'm not saying this is a rip off (the Times editors know the book and know how many copies it sold), but it could have used something truly novel. Elrick asks, almost Vowellesquish, "Taking a spot on a nearby park bench, I thought for a moment about why I had used a beautiful summer afternoon to track down the statue of a largely inconsequential man who just happened to have inhabited the White House at a time when very little was expected of its occupant." Good stuff. But Elrick's answer is: because you read Assasination Vacation.

interlard

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 15:54:39 -0500

Not a forgotten person, but almost a forgotten statue: I really love how Gandhi strolls quietly in the bushes in Union Square. You can only see him as you walk past, and I always feel a pleasant surprise when I see him.