Now 2023 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA Portfolio Artwork WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
Amulet Keepers by Michael Northrop
Beneath by Roland Smith
Book of the Dead by Michael Northrop
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente
The Cat at the Wall by Deborah Ellis
Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale
Crewel Yule by Monica Ferris
Death Cloud by Andy Lane
Delphine by Richard Sala
Doctor Who: A Big Hand For The Doctor by Eoin Colfer
Embroidered Truths by Monica Ferris
FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics, Vol. 4: The End Times by Simon Oliver
The Ghoul Next Door by Victoria Laurie
Icons of Popular Culture by Marshall Fishwick
Lending a Paw by Laurie Cass
Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid
The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
Mischievous Meg by Astrid Lindgren
Missy Violet and Me by Barbara Hathaway
Mister Orange by Truus Matti
Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India by Gerald McDermott
The Odds of Getting Even by Sheila Turnage
Off Road by Sean Gordon Murphy
Old Magic by Marianne Curley
Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway by Phil Patton
Open This Little Book by Jesse Klausmeier
Orbiter by Warren Ellis
Out West: A Journey through Lewis and Clark's America by Dayton Duncan
Sins and Needles by Monica Ferris
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost
Under New York by Linda Oatman High

Miscellaneous
Crazy for Cozies

Previous month


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish



Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Under New York: 03/06/16

Under New York by Linda Oatman High

My research into the road trip narrative took a detour in June when I started wondering about the numerous stories that take place under the streets and buildings of Manhattan. I'm not talking the pedestrian inclusion of the subway, but rather those tales of monsters, people, or ghosts residing down in the forgotten recesses of the Big Apple.

As cities grew too large in their outwards expansion, too large to contain traffic and to manage the flow of people and goods throughout, they had to find another way to accommodate the influx of people. There are two ways to go: up and down. Like a well established forest, the city has numerous layers of root systems.

To fully understand the road trip narrative and it's rural vs urban dichotomy, one must think three dimensionally. For every horizontal road trip story, there is a vertical one, and one that is often subterranean.

Under New York by Linda Oatman High is a picture book that investigates the different strata of New York City. The book is told as a typical day in the city with a "bet you didn't know" type approach.

Besides the subway, the city has these other things underground:

The layers of New York

  • 0-30 feet: water pipes, gas lines, steam pipes, telephone lines, fiber optic cable, electrical power lines
  • 30-200 feet: subways and sewers
  • 200+ feet: A new water tunnel

Four stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:


Twitter Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2023 Sarah Sammis