Bopping into the old drab station like some blazoned jungle of wonders

August 30, 2024 11:26 AM

Give novelists 120 years of packed daily commutes, late night rides home from bars and restaurants, early morning trips to the beach, and now the subway isn’t just buried in the bedrock of Manhattan, it’s burrowed deep within New York novels of the last twelve decades, a source of wonder, despair, quotidian boredom. Join us as we ride alongside fictional characters plucked from the works of Edith Wharton, Ralph Ellison, Sylvia Plath, Lee Child, James Baldwin and so many more. from 120 Years of New York’s Subterranean Literary Muse [New York Times]
posted by chavenet (1 comment total)

at times like this — idled without explanation, in the overheated darkness — it was hard not to think about just how deep under the earth the express track ran, or the mile of blackness that lay between him and the next stop.

That's what I remember from riding the subway as a kid in the 1970s. So exciting, then dull, then inspiring dread.

Speaking of which, bravo for including the novel of Pelham 1 2 3.
posted by doctornemo at 2:32 PM on August 30, 2024 [2 favorites]