Chi-min Chang
ABSTRACT
Let the Great World Spin (2009) interweaves Colum McCann’s historical narrative with Philippe Petit’s high-wire walk, revealing peculiar socio-historical and past-present connections. The high-wire walk across the Twin Towers incarnates McCann’s idea of the city as art, demonstrating different connections between life and art, past and present as well as socio-historical linkages. First, the performance creates a parallel vision of the city in which the breathtaking performance in the air reflects life’s uncertainty and vulnerability in different areas, classes, and even races on the ground. The vision generates resonances among various walks of life, each striving to identify opportunities for balance. Secondly, the daunting scene of the performance takes the spectators by surprise, disrupts their habitual sensory reactions, and thrusts them into new perceptions and responses. The responses, more than reconfiguring the sensible or the visible, evoke the memories of the past and activate pressing related queries. Prominently, the memories and queries unveil unexpected socio-historical configurations and persistent dynamic relationships between the past and the present. Employing Petit’s performance as the novel’s central image, McCann not only makes a distinct vision of the cityscape but also distinguishes his historical perspective. Prominently, what underlies McCann’s historical perspective in accounting for socio-historical intricacies is his overcoming the suspension of thought and words in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
KEYWORDS: Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin, historical narrative, city, art
DOI: 10.30395/WSR.202412_18(1).0006
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