Said Roz Chast, quote in "Roz Chast Knows You’ll Always Regret Leaving the City for the Suburbs" (NYT).
That's an interview with David Marchese, published a few weeks ago, noticed today because it was linked at the bottom of the new David Marchese interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, blogged in the previous post.
Roz Chast has a new book: "I Must Be Dreaming."
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Fraidy cat.
I'm with her. It's those cars exploding around me all the time that make me just hate driving.
I like her cartoons, but it really seems to be a universal constant: if you like someone's creative work, you probably shouldn't listen to them talk, because inevitably they'll disappoint. Being incapable at a basic life task is one thing; celebrating that incompetence and dependency on others is another.
I remember in the '70s when NYer fiction writer Ann Beattie's career was doing great, so she moved out, like Lucy and Ricky before her, to the country in Connecticut, thinking that the pastoral surroundings would be inspiring.
Oops. She found, she later wrote, that she could barely write without the madness and noise of NYC outside.
As for Roz Chast, one must suspect that those meta comments are disingenuously but cleverly made so as to be congruent with her brand.
I love to drive. I don't always like owning a car. But I love to drive.
And yet about 200,000,000 of us feel the exact opposite, that is, the car sets us free. Because we come from the semi-rural parts of the country. “Suburb” is a pejorative to Rachel yet by definition suburbs are parts of urban centers and usually easily accessible by the same transit systems she feels so free riding. Go beyond. See how people live out in the country, the semi-rural, the planned communities and see how the car fits that environment so much better. Marvel at the almost always empty buses scurrying from these small inland towns around me to the regional hubs of San Bernardino and Riverside. The few big metros that so excite Rachel for being ideal mass transit towns are generally in decline and people are generally bugging out to lower density areas. Stop calling them suburbs. Not every city is a subset of your urban dreamscape.
"Everything about it is hateful."
Then don't drive. Live in the city. Depend on whoever runs the transit system to take you where they go, on their schedule. Problem solved.
if you like someone's creative work, you probably shouldn't listen to them talk, because inevitably they'll disappoint.
Hear hear.
Being incapable at a basic life task is one thing; celebrating that incompetence and dependency on others is another.
I didn't read the excerpt as her "celebrating" her incompetence and crippling anxiety as much as her attempting to rationalize it and, to an extent, saying, "I'm just so quirky, don't I remind you of Woody Allen?"
(Disclaimer: pretty much my entire exposure to Allen, by my own choice, has been the guy who pretended to be him on the sitcom Just Shoot Me. But the impression I get from the zeitgeist, so to speak, is that being anxious and quirky is a big part of his brand.)
Sort of a middle-aged manic pixie dream girl? Only without the archetypal task of bringing enlightenment to Our Hero?
I've been driving for 52 years, and never had a tire fall off, or a car explode. What is it about some people and their hatred for the automobile? The automobile, and its adjacent technology, are the reason we have our current high standard of living.
What Crack said +1
Now if she could just convince the other 10% of drivers who feel exactly like her to stop driving and get the Hell out of our way....
So Roz feels more like an adult when she doesn’t have to do adult level things like driving. Typical leftist. She also likely thinks she is superior to all the people that keep that city and it’s public transportation running. Again, typical leftist, perpetual child. I don’t like driving either, I just don’t think it makes me more of an adult to not have to. Because that is illogical.
Heh- I’m just the opposite of Crack. I’ve always been hesitant to drive. Spatial judgement, etc.
I’m driving a Chevy Blazer now. 2021, I think. Lovely vehicle. Lovely color.
"One time I was driving and the front hood started rattling and the whole drive I pictured the hood of the car flying up and then my crashing and not only killing myself but killing tons of people."
So instead of stopping and inspecting it you just kept on driving? You're not responsible enough to be behind the wheel.
Why do today's city dwellers seem so incapable of dealing with the world, or life?
America since the mid-20th century has always been about the freedom of the road, the freedom of the individual to roam wherever he or she wanted (with notable historical exceptions). But today's city dwellers seem petrified by the entire idea of it. But not all city dwellers. Seems worse in New York than, say, Atlanta. Atlantans go everywhere in their cars, even those living in the city.
A classic admission of a novice's anxiety. Next thing, he'll be talking about how girls are yucky and how beer tastes awful.
I think I passed her on the road once- hazard lights on, going 10 mph on the interstate in the left lane, door ajar, hood popped, but still latched, belching smoke from the tail-pipe. Good riddance!
I'm guessing Chast was born and reared in the City, and just can't adapt to the lifestyle called the American Dream.
It's a big country, and offers lots of choices. If she prefers NYC, it doesn't bother or affect me in any way.
I tolerate driving. It's just something I have to do to get around in this sprawl.
YouTube: "His facts are different. I understand what you’re saying, but there’s people out there who have their own facts."
Driving for me is to simultaneously dance with two partners. Steering the car while keeping my mind from veering off to far.
I live in the city of Omaha. I have a car. I can drive all around the city and not worry about running out of battery power.
It’s called freedom.
She can move to downtown Seattle and enjoy stepping over the homeless druggies, their needles, crack pipes and fentanyl foils, and their bodily leavings (to put it politely). Good luck finding a Target or Bartell's drug store. Bartell drugs, a once independent family-owned chain, has closed all their downtown stores plus others around Seattle due to crime and homeless druggies.
Maybe she could get a job putting up plywood panels over broken windows. That would be a useful trade for her to get into.
City rats and country cats. She's a city rat. If you grew up out in the West--particularly in the basin and range territory west of the Rockies, you either rode a horse (in the old days) or drove a vehicle. Distances were and are simply too great to do otherwise.
It's best to stay where you are comfortable.
I like to drive. I like owning cars too. I have four.
And I hate cities.
"tires falling off, a blow out, a car exploding"
OMG, yes, it's mayhem out there.
"and the whole drive I pictured the hood of the car flying up and then my crashing and not only killing myself but killing tons of people"
And people wonder why blue cities are what they are.
"Roz Chast Knows You’ll Always Regret Leaving the City for the Suburbs"
Going by the headline, another case of someone with peculiar preferences who knows "you" will, actually must, (dis)like the same things, cuz you couldn't possibly reasonably differ. Is she averse to travel, by any chance?
Name me a clean, safe, civilized city. Even Paris is ruined.
Aw. It's ok to have a ginormous case of OCD. Don't blame cars, though. Know it's you and choose the transportation that makes you comfortable.
She lives her life as prey. That will end well.
"Roz Chast, call your mama! RIGHT NOW!!!"
This is how the NYT give their readers bad news.
City life has been attracting and rewarding neuroticism since...forever. What I loved/hated about my 3 years in NYC. Sort of reminds me of the Mark Twain quote "Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."
I love to drive. In two weeks we're heading to OBX for a week, it's about a nine hour drive each way. In November we'll be heading to Illinois to visit family for Thanksgiving. That's about 11-12 hours depending on weather, traffic, gas, food and stuff.
City people please stay in the city. It is extremely dangerous out here in the country. Stay away, very dangerous. You've been warned!
I hate it! I hate changing lanes. I hate merging. I hate trucks. Everything about it is hateful.
Actually there is only one thing in all of that that is hateful. It's the thing doing the hating.
"One time I was driving and the front hood started rattling and the whole drive I pictured the hood of the car flying up and then my crashing and not only killing myself but killing tons of people."
I bought a hopped-up Honda Civic from a hot-rodder, with a Prelude VTEC engine and a super-stiff suspension. Thing is a fucking rocket. It looks like shit to a normal person, but kids are always coming up to me and saying, "Wow, nice car!". They don't even ask what a broken-down relic like me is doing in it. The hot-rodder put a carbon-fiber hood on it, apparently that is a thing. So, whatever, but the latch was flakey, and one day when I put the hammer down to pass a motorcycle on a country road, just as she hit 80, there was a huge bang and everything went black. "So this is what a heart attack feels like. Strange, it doesn't hurt at all". But then I saw a line of light along the bottom of the windshield, and realized the hood had flipped up and smashed the windshield. I managed to slow down and get off the road. The motorcyclist cruised serenely past.
The hood is fine, BTW. I put some rally clips on it.
tires falling off, a blow out, a car exploding
in my forty-five years of driving, i've only had a tire fall off (at speed) one time (well maybe twice)
It's really not that big of a deal (FOR YOU.. For the people downrange where your tire is going..)
Blow outs? I assume he means flats? Does he know about tubeless tires?) Sure, had lots.. No BIG DEAL
a car exploding? My '70 'cuda* had a Disturbing tendency for carb fires, which DID kinda sux; but exploding?
my '70 'cuda* it was the car that had the front left tire come off at speed (failed lug nuts)..
Most of my more interesting events took place with that car.. GOD how i miss it!
There's a REALLY amusing story about having the voltage regulator fail in southern Wisconsin with and having to make a replacement out of light bulbs..
Boy, you guys are really hating on poor Roz. Cars are, in fact, dangerous. They kill a lot of people, every year. It's not irrational to be afraid of them, it's irrational not to be. I drive a lot, and I enjoy it. But from time to time it occurs to me that you could get killed doing this. A few years back, a guy was stopped at a light out in Springfield, with a truck in front of him. Another truck pulls up behind him. There's a lot of trucks, out in that part of Springfield. Dump trucks, log trucks, semis. But the brakes were out on the truck behind him, and it squished him like a bug. Mission accomplished, destination reached, final disposition obtained. So, how do you convince yourself that won't happen to you? Your reflexes are better than his? You don't drive in Springfield? If you drive, sooner or later you will drive in Springfield. And reflexes aren't worth much when somebody else's brakes go out.
Um...
I've seen a fair amount of people driving who are, shall we say, less than stellar. Speeding, stupid driver tricks, thinking they're in GTA - but the vast majority aren't.
Just did about 650 miles yesterday, coming home from a vacay, almost all on the freeway. Some areas the drivers were interesting, some stretches were boring. Long distance driving isn't a problem at all.
Miami area has some INTERESTING drivers. But - go with the flow of traffic, stay in your lane as much as possible, get over early for exits and such - and remember that THEY (for the most part) don't want to bash into YOU just as much as YOU don't want to bash into them.
But that's what a normal driver thinks. Some people let their fear take over, and they'll be damned if they'll give it up.
"in my forty-five years of driving, i've only had a tire fall off (at speed) one time (well maybe twice)"
Seriously? You need to maintain your cars better.
It's just BS. She's playing up her shtick of fearfulness and worry while promoting her latest book.
She lives in a large, lovely home in Ridgefield, Connecticut. That's a long, long way away in many ways from her birthplace in the city - Flatbush.
"So, how do you convince yourself that won't happen to you?"
I don't. I wonder if Roz has convinced herself someone won't push her onto the subway tracks.
It's always something.
I love Rod Chast’s cartoons. They are intelligent and aware, self-deprecating. I think her neurotic riff in the interview is a kind of trolling. But maybe not. I’m only 60:40.
So she doesn't like to be independent. You can go anywhere in the country, anywhere you want- ANY TIME you want, if you drive.
In NYC, what almost everyone I know means when they say "The City", mass transit does run 24/7, albeit less frequently in the wee hours. Boston subway shuts down for 4 hours each night. 5,6, or 7 hours for the Washington Metro, depending on night.
But anyhow, if you're dependent on public transit, you haul your body to the nearest station or stop, then wait until the next train or bus, and if your destination is on that route you ride to it,. If not you get off at another stop- and wait for the connection to show up...
With a car? Out to the driveway- or parking spot, get in, drive directly to your destination, park, and you're there.
You're 100% reliant on others if you routinely travel beyond walking or cycling distance and you don't drive. If you want to live that way, fine. I'm certainly not going to stop you.
Oddly, when I think of living car free, city dwellers like her and the Amish around me have more in common then either of them think.
So she doesn't like to be independent. You can go anywhere in the country, anywhere you want- ANY TIME you want, if you drive.
In NYC, what almost everyone I know means when they say "The City", mass transit does run 24/7, albeit less frequently in the wee hours. Boston subway shuts down for 4 hours each night. 5,6, or 7 hours for the Washington Metro, depending on night.
But anyhow, if you're dependent on public transit, you haul your body to the nearest station or stop, then wait until the next train or bus, and if your destination is on that route you ride to it,. If not you get off at another stop- and wait for the connection to show up...
With a car? Out to the driveway- or parking spot, get in, drive directly to your destination, park, and you're there.
You're 100% reliant on others if you routinely travel beyond walking or cycling distance and you don't drive. If you want to live that way, fine. I'm certainly not going to stop you.
Oddly, when I think of living car free, city dwellers like her and the Amish around me have more in common then either of them think.
I loved the city because no car. Can walk to work to run errands. Can get tipsy at dinner and walk home. Inner city golf sucks so I had to drive. Driving sucks. Now that Dems are fundamentally transforming America cities suck for productive people but great if you’re a young leftie idealist or love meth or are here illegally or you love to shoplift.
I sold and moved to…I guess something like the suburbs but there’s no real urb. I miss food and want back the hours a week I have to drive to accomplish anything…but its pretty and there’s animals.
I’m just the opposite of Crack. I’ve always been hesitant to drive. Spatial judgement, etc.
I’m driving a Chevy Blazer now. 2021, I think. Lovely vehicle. Lovely color.
I'm a perfectly competent driver, but I recognize my capacity for both distraction and road hypnosis. So unlike a lot of people who really love driving (I'm fine with it but don't love it), I'm happy to have a newer car with adaptive cruise, the little lights on the side mirrors to warn me of people in my blind spots, the thing that makes the car slam on the brakes when someone suddenly changes lanes in front of me (this is my least favorite feature but probably the one most likely to save a life)... It's full-on Nanny Car, but I recognize my limitations.
And I shouldn't have been so mean. As Kate points out, this person may simply and actually have OCD or clinical anxiety, and far be it from me to mock these disorders - though I'd encourage her to get appropriate help and not just (or not always) try to shape her life around whatever isn't working right in her head. Pace Jupiter, though, in the absence of an anxiety disorder, it is normal to recognize that driving is statistically dangerous but not normal to let that fact paralyze you.
"[What is it about driving?] Ugh! There’s the car itself: tires falling off, a blow out, a car exploding. One time I was driving and the front hood started rattling and the whole drive I pictured the hood of the car flying up and then my crashing and not only killing myself but killing tons of people."
Not a fraidy-cat. Fearmongering-cat.
As a recent (two years) ex-New Yorker, I hear Roz loud and clear! It is so wonderfully civilized to live in a city where one can get around swiftly and efficiently without having to own or operate an automobile!
I'm getting my driving legs back after 40.5 years in NYC, but I will always prefer being able to sit and read or people-watch or daydream while moving about the city, a far better experience to the burden a buying and operating an expensive metal multi-ton potential death machine.
"I live in the city of Omaha. I have a car. I can drive all around the city and not worry about running out of battery power.
"It’s called freedom."
Freedom ain't free. There's the financial obligation to the car note and gasoline, a burden for many, as well as repairs and maintenance, and the responsibility to drive prudently and safely, a responsibility many people do not seem to recognize as theirs.
Even in the city, having a car can make life a lot easier. I used to drive for people who because of age or infirmity could no longer drive themselves, and they all lamented the loss of freedom and security on top of the convenience and usefulness.
Life is gonna get a lot tougher for everyone when cars and trucks become a rarity for citizens to own and operate.
I’d rather be a country mouse than a city rat.
That's nice for the author. I like the freedom an automobile gives me. To each their own, so long as you don't make me do your own.
Story time: My dad and my grandfather were once driving in Northern Michigan when the hood latch let loose, and slammed up against the windshield before breaking off. (Around 1947.) Both said Holy sh!t!) They tied it back on (always carry some ropes or straps) and got it fixed in a garage in West Branch. Moral of the story - no matter how you travel, be prepared for something going wrong.
And a lot to what the commenters have said. I like driving. I like setting my own schedule. I know my limits on long distance and stop every couple of hours. Last May dad moved from Florida back to Michigan. I drove the U-haul straight through just taking fuel and walk around breaks. Took just over 24 hours, but a U-haul with a car carrier isn't a speedy ride.
I'm sure the author would've been entertaining when I went through Atlanta around 4pm in the rain. I mean afterwards, not during.
"We're gonna die!"
"No one messes with a U-haul when it signals to merge!"
It's not so much she hates driving. It's people like her who don't want the rest of us to drive, either.
I hear Philly is wonderful this time of year.
Ride the bus. Meet the neighbors.
"I loved the city because no car. Can walk to work to run errands."
Lots of people say this and if it works for you, great. I drive to the market once a week to do my shopping. If I walked, I'd have to go every day. No thanks.
"It's not so much she hates driving. It's people like her who don't want the rest of us to drive, either."
That's the way it usually plays out. People who like to drive don't generally insist that those who don't, should. Pity they can't return the favor.
Jim at said...
It's not so much she hates driving. It's people like her who don't want the rest of us to drive, either."
California Looking To Restrict (Classic Car) Travel...The state is looking at instituting “zero-emission zones” soon.
"The state of California is looking seriously at instituting or allowing local governments to institute zero-emission zones in the near future. In preparation for such a move, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) reportedly is gathering information about classic cars and how their owners use them. We knew something like this was coming to the US and California would likely be first, but this is still concerning.
According to a Daily Caller report, on August 2 CARB sent a survey to owners of classic cars from model year 1978 or earlier. The questions were aimed at ascertaining how those classics are used and store, as well as where they’re driven. It even asks about how many miles show on owners’ odometers. Knowing how increasingly authoritarian many government agencies seems to be trending, this is concerning to many car enthusiasts who still live in the Golden State.
Back in the day, California was arguably the epicenter of cool car culture with many legendary brands, builders, and other hobbyists emerging from the state. That all emerged at a time when individual expression, not institutionalized expression, reigned supreme. Unfortunately, that looks to be going the way of the dodo before long.
Daily Caller also points out how CARB issued a report back in 2019 suggesting the state should allow “local jurisdictions to create zero-emissions zones.” If that sounds a little too similar to the ULEZ zones that have taken over all of London’s boroughs in the UK, with plate readers fining people daily for violations, you’re not alone.
California car culture already isn’t what it used to be but is still pretty amazing. However, moves like this could accelerate the current trajectory."
More at the link.
Driving is freedom of Choice. When, route, pace. Lots of decisions. Its the journey. To, and from.
Ive been driving since I was ~10, 58 years, 54 with a license. Tractors, Pickup truck in the fields. Since then I've driven every thing from mopeds, to 18 wheelers. Cranes and fire trucks. CDL license with all the endorsements, including hazardous materials, and passengers. Over 100K miles on motorcycles.
Driving is fun and relaxing.
But we need all types, I'm glad there are people that enjoy the cities. The older I get the less time I volunteer to go into the cities.
I will always prefer being able to sit and read or people-watch or daydream while moving about the city,
The best commute I ever had was, hands down, the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton.
Second best was from South London to London Bridge by train, when I could read the whole time.
But in my life, most distances between home and work have not been either beautiful (like the former) or reasonable (like the latter) for public transportation commuting. I've been a working adult in six states and one other country (that was the UK) and in only those two was it practical to commute via public transportation.
Do you want to be a worker bee tied to its hive or an Eagle that is strong and free?
I hate changing lanes. I hate merging. I hate trucks.
I think I've been behind this woman on the highway and I'd like to say to her: Do everyone a favor and stop driving.
"I drive to the market once a week to do my shopping. If I walked, I'd have to go every day. No thanks."
That's typical of New Yorkers, to shop a few times a week, (if not every day, which some may do). It's convenient. On one's way from the subway to home at the end of the day, one just goes into the market to pick up those items needed for that evening and perhaps for the next few days. I would typically walk home with one or sometimes two grocery bags. I find buying "for the week" leads to buying items that do not end up being used at all, eventually to be cast out. It is also common to overlook buying needed items, leading to multiple visits to the market each week (or in the same day) anyway...just as in the city!
Also, in the city, going to the market provides exercise, while in the suburbs, one expends only gasoline, polluting the environment while providing no exercise for the shopper. Another two points of superiority for city shopping!
I kind of resent the requirement to get in the car and drive several miles just to buy milk, eggs, toothpaste, etc.
"I kind of resent the requirement to get in the car and drive several miles just to buy milk, eggs, toothpaste, etc."
Who is requiring you to do that?
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