I've followed this guy for years, and seeing how he's gone from a well-read and passionate Ph.D student with an odd/unique history to a full-fledged intellectual with vast anti-establishment prowess is just wonderful.
I've read and consumed probably 30-50 hours of his work--unfortunately not (yet?) his book-- finding his story fascinating. Anyway, here he is, writing a sort of love letter to New York City of all places.
I moved constantly when I was young. No single location holds all the memories of my youth; no old apartment preserves the spirit of the ten families I lived with throughout my turbulent childhood. What I have instead are fragments: a foster home here, a dusty provincial town there, and the echo of a restless ambition that kept me moving forward.
"New York, despite its outward chaos, offers a sense of continuity and permanence, in a way that no place from my childhood ever did. It’s a city for visionaries, for those who see opportunities and seize them, or stumble into them"
I specifically like this phrasing:
Throughout the process of writing Troubled, I came to realize that memoir is about squeezing the reality you’ve experienced into the vocabulary you know. It’s imperfect, always. Our lives are a beguiling mix of facts and feelings, images and impressions, memories and myths. What I know is this: I’m here now, in the greatest city in the world, writing, working, dreaming, and building a life I once only imagined.
Dude can write. And reading his work is always highly recommended.
/J