I didn't know I was a zombie pedant until I started considering what from the zombie canon to keep in 'Zone One' and what to ignore.
Colson WhiteheadRead
To put off the inevitable, we try to fix the city in place, remember it as it was, doing to the city what we would never allow to be done to ourselves. . . . New York City does not hold our former selves against us. Perhaps we can extend the same courtesy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on our resistance to change and suggests that we should embrace our evolving selves as a city does.
Colson Whitehead's quote contemplates the human tendency to cling to the past, wishing to preserve the familiar while resisting inevitable change. He draws a parallel between our relationships with cities and ourselves, suggesting that just as New York City evolves without holding onto the past, we too should be kinder to ourselves and allow for growth and transformation rather than fixating on who we once were.
Themes
ChangeSelfGrowthEvolutionCity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a personal development workshop to encourage participants to embrace their evolving identities.
More from Colson Whitehead
All quotes →I don't generally follow sports. At an early age, I discovered that nature had apportioned me only a small reserve of enthusiasm. Best to ration.
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In keeping with my family's affection for doomed product lines and hexed formats, we purchased a Betamax. The year before, we'd bought a TRS-80 instead of an Apple II, and in due course we'd unbox Mattel's Intellivision, instead of Atari's legendary gizmo. This was good training for a writer, for the sooner you accept the fact that you are a deluded idiot who is always out of step with reality the better off you will be.
Colson WhiteheadRead
Access to information, to music or any kind of culture, is getting faster and faster and more streamlined. At each juncture, people are thrown into tumult and have to adapt or die.
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I use New York to talk about home, but the ideas in 'Colossus' could be transferred to other cities. The story about Central Park is really about the first day of spring in any park. The Coney Island chapter is really about beaches and summer and heat waves.
Colson WhiteheadRead
Early on my career, I figured out that I just have to write the book I have to write at that moment. Whatever else is going on in the culture is just not that important. If you could get the culture to write your book, that would be great. But the culture can't write your book.
Colson WhiteheadRead
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