[lit-ideas] Re: The Island Called Gotham

To keep motivating Yost to share his wonderful experiences with us. I love  
his colourful descriptions. Below a reference to Whitman, on whom I hope he has 
 loads to share. 
 
More on the Gothams. 
 
R. Paul quoted that magnificent passage where he compares a language with  an 
old city (like Rome, for I don't think Wien counts! and surely Cambridge  
either -- London perhaps, but was Wittgenstein familiar with it? He spent most  
of his pre-Cambridge days in _Manchester_, and does *that* count?
 
Anyway, I find this delightful expression:
 
                      d = [x1 - x2]  + [y1 - y2]

                 
It's called Manhattan distance, and it's defined in the OED in a passage  
meant to irritate Wittgenstein -- and perhaps Yost, if he can re-read  
Grapefruit: 
 
 
 1985 R. F. SPROULL et al. Device-Independent Graphics x. 284 
The approximation for distance is sometimes  called the ‘Manhattan  distance’
, because the distance between two points in New York City is best  thought 
of as the distance along city streets at right angles to one another. 
 
           1988 T. DILLINGER VLSI Engin. vi. 212 
The Manhattan distance is the rectilinear distance  between two points: d = 
|x1  - x2| + |y1 -  y2|. 
 
          1988 B. T. PREAS & M. J. LORENZETTI  Physical Design Automation 
viii. 350 The intersection of two lines in Manhattan geometry can be computed 
quickly and with  no loss of precision.
 
In Grapefruit, Yoko Ono invites a friend to come and see her new exhibit in  
a obscure gallery in the middle of nowhere in Manhattan. It's a short letter. 
I  delight in the ps, "Mike, I wrote the directions as from my side, not 
yours; so  when I write 'left', you read 'right', and vice versa and and when I 
write 'the  other side of the street' it is the _side_ "you" should be 
considering, not the  other".
 
Anyway, more Manhattanite quotes:
 
1659 Proc. Council of Maryland 23 Sept. in W. H.  Browne Arch. Maryland 
(1885) III. 370 

The Dutch plantations then called by the Generall name of Manhattans, after  
the name of the Jndians they were first seated by.
 
Apparently, the name became official with the creation of the "borough of  
Manhattan".

 
As to culture clashes:
 
1909 Nation (N.Y.) 9 Sept. 238/3 
 
Perhaps the most amusing thing in the book is an  interpolated story based on 
a difference of opinion between New Englanders and  Manhattanese on the 
subject of doughnuts and crullers.
 
But cannot testify there.
 
Then there's the UNIVERSALITY and totally ANTI-INSULATION of the great  
bearded man of the Place that EVERYBODY loves!

1875 W. WHITMAN in Gentleman's Mag. Dec. 706, 
 
I was Manhattanese, friendly, and proud. 
 
Then there's these ones that don't really relate, but should. Some people  
find the use of 'diminutives' charming. I say 'trippette', for example, for an  
excursion to the Galapagos, say. And while 'insula' gives isolation, Italian  
'isola' (as my favourite isle in the whole world, I would say, the Isola  
Tiberina) gives English isolet:
 
1613 PURCHAS  Pilgrimage (1614)  520 Babelmandel, Camaran, and Mazua are 
accounted amongst the  chiefe of these Isolets. 1632  J. HAYWARD tr. Biondi's 
Eromena 181 Northward  from that Cape stood a little disinhabited Isolet.
 
There's also club loyalty:

1891 Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1 Nov. 1/4 
Another Manhattanite [sc. a  member of the Manhattan  Athletic Club] joined 
in the fracas

Cfr. 
 
1919 Amer. Legion Weekly 4 July 15/2 
Wouldn't it be great for Manhattanites if the two New York  clubs should ‘cop’
 in their respective leagues and fight it out at the Polo  Grounds? 
 
I would think so too. 
 
1946 Holiday  Nov. 79/2 
We know how Manhattanites tend to ignore Brooklyn and snub  it. 
        which should be a pity since on  occasion Vanessa (Big Van) Redgrave 
sometimes makes it _just_ to Brooklyn and  avoids the "isolet" (as with a 
recent production of a Greek tragedy -- Brooklyn  Academy of Music). 
 
1929 E.  WILSON  I thought of Daisy  iii. 196 
 
Tony had become Manhattanized and cynical. 
 
Cheers,
 
 
J. L.  Speranza



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