Tuesday, November 26, 2013

I Love NY

My current book that I'm reading is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

There's a part where the main character (Oskar) meets a Chinese man who is wearing an I Love NY shirt. When Oskar points it out, the man says that he thought it said I Love You.

Noticing that the man has so many I Love NY things around his home, Oskar asks why he loves everyone so much.

This isn't really a good blog post, just something to think about.

____________________



“I asked him did he really love New York or was he just wearing the shirt. He smiled, like he was nervous. I could tell he didn't understand, which made me feel guilty for speaking English, for some reason. I pointed at his shirt. "Do? You? Really? Love? New York?" He said, "New York?" I said, "Your. Shirt." He looked at his shirt. I pointed at the N and said "New," and the Y and said "York." He looked confused or embarrassed, or surprised, or maybe even mad. I couldn't tell what he was feeling, because I couldn't speak the language of his feelings. "I not know was New York. In Chinese, ny mean 'you.' Thought was 'I love you.'" It was then that I noticed the "I♥NY" poster on the wall, and the "I♥NY" flag over the door, and the "I♥NY" dishtowels, and the "I♥NY" lunchbox on the kitchen table. I asked him, "Well, then why do you love everybody so much?”


No comments:

Post a Comment