“View of the World from 9th Avenue” by Saul Steinberg:
On the Saul Steinberg Foundation Web site
To help us think about Steinberg’s illustration, we can consider how it is a map. Some questions we can consider:
What time period does this text reflect?
What geographical location does it depict?
What information is accurate, and what is inaccurate?
What do the inaccuracies mean?
What do you understand about the map from its title?
What is The New Yorker magazine and why was this an appropriate cover for one of its issues?
goes from a lot of buildings to rocks, nothing
NY to Jersey to China, Japan, Russia
Vantage point: Why is the building he’s in so tall?–we can see the tops of all the other buildings, also far into the distance.
Distortion of what we see, what we are able to see
foreground: people, cars, street lights, buildings, parking lot, highway, traffic lights, water (Hudson River), USPS mailbox, water towers, older buildings with intricate detail, newer buildings with boxier design, piers
in the distance: other locations (states, cities), borders, Canada and Mexico, rocks, Pacific Ocean, China, Japan, Russia
New York looks cleaner than we would expect, especially in the 1970s.
Everywhere else has no detail.