Into the City: Drafting

This is where I live!

My first action yesterday was to go read the only copy of Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction" in New York City accessible to me. Which was in Queens. Really far into Queens. This far into Queens.

But this was good because I got to see a whole different neighborhood of New York. All throughout Queens the subway is actually a superway, that is, it's above ground. So I got to see views of Manhattan as we rode away from it, and I got to see lots of brick houses with lots of graffiti. The Queens library was also pretty cool, and different from the other two libraries. It's neat how they each have a personality. "The Art of Fiction" was definitely worth it. It's amazing how much her philosophy explicitly affects her teachings about writing. And it's great to see philosophy in action. On the subway home I started writing a short screenplay. I also almost got severed from my backpack. "Please stand clear of the closing doors." They're serious, people.

After lunch I went almost to the end of Manhattan Island, to see the WTC. After 7 years, it's still mostly a big hole.

It's painfully obvious that there's something missing; it's surrounded by big, beautiful buildings of the World Financial Center, the Deutsche Bank, and others.

(This picture doesn't do it justice.)

Wandering around the perimeter leads you into the World Financial Center, but the only parts you can see are big, beautiful, empty halls and stairways, like the Winter Garden, which has it's own wiki page for some reason. Yes, those are real palm trees.

After that I went to the Rockefeller Center. The centerpiece, the GE Building, surprised me with how attractive it was. Many pictures were taken.

These two pictures together show you the full height of the GE Building from the side. I'm gonna say it's about 100 times more beautiful than the tree.