The Brooklynite: Flappers Were the Original Hipsters
As can be expected, The Brooklynite had plenty of things to say about Manhattan, even deriding the Manhattan culinary scene in a way that still makes kind of perfect sense: “If you are forced to be in Manhattan and there acquire an appetite, we pity you. Especially if you wish to avoid the beaten path.” Which, totally. I totally get that. And perhaps the choicest insult that The Brooklynite threw toward that other borough across the river is this: “Necessity the other day drove us into the confines of Lower Manhattan. The place invariably makes us blue so lacking is it in the healthy life and bustle of our own teeming thoroughfares. We dropped in at Trinity Church cemetery to get cheered up if possible and sat down on a tombstone.”
But what exactly did The Brooklynite think of Brooklyn? How was Brooklyn perceived by those who dwelled there? In an article titled “So You’re From Brooklyn,” Brooklyn is declared a “bourgeois borough” full of “baby carriages, rubber plants, gold fish and green grocers.” The author warns that “Your average Manhattanite’s conception of that great unexplored area beyond the three bridges is at once as naive as a child’s idea of Alice’s mythical Wonderland and as weird as a futurist artist’s impression of Heaven.” But the author goes on to advise that it doesn’t matter that his “Manhattan friends rarely come over [because] somehow or other the impression got around or was bruited about that a trip to Brooklyn required a spirited guide, well versed in woodcraft, a sturdy pack horse, rations for several weeks and a company of cavalry” because Brooklyn doesn’t need Manhattanites. Brooklyn, after all, has its own charms. The author declares, “Yes, I’m from Brooklyn. I have parked on the Shore Road of Fort Hamilton and seen the sun set in splendor across the harbor. I have watched dusk gently creep across the city from the roof of the Bossert. I have gazed out over the Prospect Park lake on calm summer evenings and my ice skates have flashed over its surface on glorious winter nights.I know the names of the people who live next door and the family down the street. I have traversed our great water-front and the exotic odors of spices have been wafted to my nostrils. I have walked through Kings Highway with the immortal spirits of the sturdy yeoman who tilled the soil close by the waters of Jamaica Bay.”
So, while The Brooklynite was but a fleeting presence in the New York literary scene, it stands out all these decades later for being sharp and witty and trenchant and for showing a great deal of Brooklyn pride. These are things that are closely associated with Brooklyn today, and it is kind of reassuring and just nice to know that they were so present in Brooklyn’s past. Evolution is an essential thing, but it is always good to check in with where you came from, and to note that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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