Exploring The Catcher in the Rye
: album
: The Carrousel in Central Park South
From an era (1908) when things were so straight laced and controlled and
people were more ignorant and living closer to the bone than, in general,
today, here is a flight of fancy for children, complete with the legend
of the gold ring.
(This carrousel actually doesn't have a gold ring.) Its horses have a
variety of
designs on them. The housing in the center, and the
rim around the top, are covered with strange,
goofy scenes. Even the fence on the building is
inventively decorated.
I took a ride. It was fun
(fun as opposed to embarrassing -- I was a little self conscious, but
not embarrassed).
I was surprised by how fast it went (12 miles/hour). I thought it would
be almost sedate. Look forward, you're in a team of floating, galloping
horses. Look back, and more are coming. Look up: bare beams painted red,
black metal, bare light bulbs.
Only a buck for this nice, amusing ride.
And it's not in aid of some
propaganda (such as the surround [it wasn't] HDTV exhibit in the NBC
store, in Rockefeller Center,
which I found worthless).
So much for the idea that you have to go over a cliff with your
era's, your peer group's, ways. One era's mode of living can't be summed
up by its generalities. There was something so beautiful about
the ducks and carrousel and
even the zoo. Perhaps it
is the specific, the transcendent specific.