Portrait of a city: moral relativism

Jay McInerney(1955) in the Bright lights, big city is a portrait of a city, in this case New York, but the author a particular attention to daily behavior; after a night in a night club the protagonist, involuntary met a woman with curlers and a dog, that when sees the protagonist he become vigilant; the comment is: “It is normal for a dog!” and answer: “Certainly, but the description so accurate, and punctual that hasn’t importance in history, is a moment of mere realism”, as the scent from a bakery; as the description of emotion that every couple has felt during the first rapport, alone and already married; it is alone the prime experience that every couple makes, this is living together almost an experiment to tried new experiences and above all, consider if the matrimonial life is going to be nice, and the protagonist looked the windows of fourth floor, and the description translates what we can feel in similar episode: “Behind those windows is the apartment that you have shared with Amanda, when you was arrived in New York. It was small and dark but to you liked the ceiling…”, voluntary or no the author describes the emotions that in conformity Marcel Proust’s(1871-1922) code, that in his romances, La recherché, he described the emotions and images that are tied to some moment, and that we keep in our memory, and that reemerge when we have a experience as a scent, an image, a scene, a taste; it is the realism, mere realism, and other images: “You have had money to rent, your preferred restaurant…every morning you have waked with the scent of bakery. You gone out to buy the journal…it is occurred two years ago before that you have married”; I think that the author has took personal memories, that confirms what I have said, because the life that, after years, become mechanical, is so, the behavior of protagonist is portrait every man in the word, hence more than a portrait of a city it is the portrait of word. Other characteristic that if think, I have very much despise, is the use of sniff that the author describes and with very much particulars; it is the moral relativism of title; because the use or dependence of drug is mean of weakness, that during this romance is evident above all in meeting in night club or other places; but also it is life of a city. As is a involuntary meeting or overbearing manner of a crazy that has seat on knee of a lady, and around is indifference, the author describes the reaction: “Almost every passengers are looking the scene but they feign of don’t see”, it is behavior of whom will not problems. The attention of protagonist is took from a announce of a disappeared with description and painting, while the green of traffic light appears. It is more than a romance is a size of labor day. The following tale is a experimented realism but in job, and the author concentrated the attention of emotive dynamic, hence from external realism he took the internal truth; but it is always realism.

Alessandro Lusana