At the same time, you can refine Jersey's countless dimensions into two polarized elements: industrial and pastoral. The struggle for dominance between them is at the heart of the American drama -- the Civil War, for example, or the urban/agrarian friction that has shaped the schism between liberal and conservative to this day. It could be that Jersey is so representative of America's original strife that dismissing the state as a crude and unlovely place is a good way to sweep certain national anxieties under the rug.Siegel uses the dichotomy between the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike as a device to illustrate the competing rural and urban sensibilities in the state's art and culture. And it works! I can't speak for all New Jerseyans, but I can speak for the many that I've encountered when I say that one of our many indicators of identity is the answer to the question "which exit?" Being from 14A on the Turnpike (remember, the A stands for "almost heaven"), I'm of the opinion that all good things can be found off the Turnpike. A good friend of mine from Westfield, exit 135 on the Parkway, has been disagreeing with me vehemently ever since we met.
The comparison resonates, because we're all aware that the post-apocalyptic landscape of the Linden Cogeneration Plant is only a few exits away from Princeton or the Horse Park of New Jersey. I'm doubtful that many of us have thought about the differences between Turnpike and Parkway mentalities as analogues for the greater American story. Maybe we should. After all, just remember Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize–novel American Pastoral is split between industrial Newark and the sticks town of Old Rimrock. It's not called New Jersey Pastoral for a reason, folks.
2 comments:
Hey Timmy! Thanks for the shoutout. I <3 the Parkway.
As an individual hailing from the exit 135 area (though, when I am in the humor for viewing the spectacular, heart wrenching, provocative post-suburban wasteland that is Route 22, I have been known to scoot off at 140A), I have to agree with my fellow 135er that the Parkway is superior in every way. The Turnpike, for all of your contrived assertions of its futuristic, post-apocalyptic splendor, is a sideshow freak next to the Parkway, which is simultaneously a verdant ode to the American Open Road, and a harsh picture of what industrialization hath wrought. Also, GSP has better rest areas (Vince Lombardi is nothing to Montvale).
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