It was the first week of autumn, the beginning of a new season (or so I thought). Mandy interrupted my stream of thoughts, as she noticed that every city was full of men's names. And she was dismayed at the gendering of New York City. She cited the Statue of Liberty. She mentioned Edith Wharton. And then the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. She didn't recall the Kim Kardashian robbery costume the other day, but I didn't say a word. I wanted to see my cousin, and that was it. My previous visit to the Big Apple took place two years ago, and Mandy invited me to watch movies. She was a huge fan of World Cinema, and she was lucky to be living in Manhattan. It didn't surprise me that New York was the venue for the screening of such films, but I wasn't thrilled as Mandy.
I could imagine Haruki Murakami writing the screenplay of "The Hole", which was set during the turn of the third millennium. A man was living in an apartment upstairs, and a woman right below his place. There was a tiny hole in his floor (or her ceiling). It didn't take me long to figure out the metaphor behind it. Two young people were trying to make out of their apparent isolation, and the hole might be a life saver. Mandy was aghast at my lack of enthusiasm, as I struggled to keep my eyes from closing during the middle of the screening. But I knew what isolation would mean. (My dormmates won't help me with my paper writing.) I didn't want to burst her bubble, though. It happened that I would enjoy a mindless entertainment now and then.
She saw "Yourself and Yours" last week. I haven't seen a South Korean feature. As a matter of fact, I saw my last movie on cable. (And it was "The Hobbit".) The semester began weeks ago, and my coursemates and I were discussing intelligent animals. Nick and I have a brief argument about "The Prince"; I don't recall the part where the narrator described the behavior of chimpanzees. It wasn't much different from the nobility ruling the different states of the Italian peninsula. It would be interesting to read about books on intelligent animals, but the modules required us to read other titles.
City of Men
The conversation went back to names. New York was named after King Charles I's brother, the Duke of New York. Frisco was named after an Italian saint while New Orleans after the Duc d'Orleans. It would be tradition, but there would be other ways. Mandy hasn't seen the statues of Joan of Arc and Eleanor Roosevelt. She read "The Hunger Games", but she had no clue about the origins of Katniss Everdeen's name.
Central Park came to mind. I didn't set foot on it (during my previous visit to New York). My cousin didn't think long and hard about it, as autumn would be the ideal time for a stroll. It took her some time before she consumed her coffee.