Michelle LaRosa
Paper#2
Dr. Devine
In looking at the October cover of the New Yorker made by Erik Drooker, as well as his other covers/artworks, it is clear that he is making a statement about climbing the social ladder and being above New York City itself. On top of that, he is clearly highlighting the chaos and confusion of the city. This cover, as well as his other works, really describes the New Yorker as a magazine because it pinpoints the elitist nature of the New Yorker reader. Even looking at the advertisements for fancy cars and expensive watches on the inside of the magazine show how the New Yorker is trying to make people feel like they are above everything, which Erik Drooker really captures in his artwork.
One of Drooker’s pieces of art that really struck me was called “The Maze”. It is similar to the October cover in that it is an aerial view of the city. It depicts New York City as a maze of interlocking buildings, and it shows a bird breaking free from it. I thought that was a great comparison to the New Yorker cover because the cover shows a similar image of a couple standing atop a building overlooking the city. Although “The Maze” has more of a theme of freedom and the New Yorker cover has a romantic theme, they both have the thought of breaking free from chaos. Another similar artwork I found by Drooker was a September cover he has created. The image shows yet another aerial view of the city with thousands of similar looking businessmen on stilts walking above the city. This, yet again, is a statement about being elitist/climbing a social ladder.
One of the events going on around the time of this cover’s release was a controversy over the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in place in the military. The romantic aspect of this cover made me think about these events. Even though the cover shows a man and woman holding hands, it could be a statement about love and being open about relationships. The couple on the cover are clearly out in the open and out in the public eye, yet still isolated from the rest of the city. This relates to the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that meant a lot to a lot of people, because it really shows how isolated the people who are affected by this may feel.
I think you're intro makes a good start---
ReplyDelete1) I think you should stick to the cover in the second paragraph before setting up the maze, etc. context....
2) I'm not sure if the don't ask context helps very much. Right now it feels very out of place.
I think more tension needed on the chaos of the city---is this always bad in the new yorker?---and the desire to be above it.... via reading, art, culture, etc.