I am re-reading TT&T after I first read it when it first came out and I absolutely adored it. Almost half way in, I'm not as swooned as I was the first time – but it's still beautiful and I'm a lot more available to notice small details that I missed the first time around.
I just reached "Part IV: Both Sides", and decided to look up the Clownerina building that Sadie moves into in LA. I never visited LA and I just wanted to know if it's a real place and what a building like this could even look like. So, it turns out not only this is a real place, but it is in fact the embodiment of "Both Sides". On the wikipedia page, there's this quote from Jonathan Borofsky the sculptor:
This sculpture is an accommodation or resolution of opposites in one. Not only does this image bring the male and female together into one figure, but also, two opposite types of performers are represented: the formal classical ballet dancer and the traditional street performer.
Maybe this reference is super obvious to people familiar with the sculptor and the area, but I just loved discovering this so much that I had to share it.
by Ok-Organization-608
2 Comments
damn that’s a cool find, i completely missed that connection when i read it. zevin really layered that book with so much symbolism that keeps revealing itself on rereads
the male/female and formal/street performer duality fits perfectly with the whole theme of the section too. makes me wonder what other real LA landmarks she wove into the story that i just walked right past without noticing
now i feel like i need a second read with a browser open the entire time