{"id":70265,"date":"2014-04-24T14:42:43","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T18:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=70265"},"modified":"2014-04-24T15:23:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-24T19:23:31","slug":"trouble-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/24\/trouble-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"Trouble-Proof"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Rooftops_in_the_Snow_(snow_effect)_-_Google_Art_Project\"<\/a>

Gustave Caillebotte, Rooftops in the Snow<\/i>, 1878<\/p><\/div>\n

Is there a song about city life more evocative than \u201cUp on the Roof<\/a>,\u201d the Drifters\u2019 1963 hit?\u00a0In 1980, The Illustrated History of Rock and Roll<\/em> said, \u201cFrom the internal rhyme of \u2018stairs\u2019 and \u2018cares\u2019 to the image of ascending from the street to the stars by way of an apartment staircase, it\u2019s first-rate, sophisticated writing.\u201d All true, but the appeal is emotional, visceral, too.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, I used to occasionally babysit for a little boy who sported a diaper until an advanced age. When he had to go to the bathroom, he would scream, \u201cPRIVACY!\u201d and everyone would have to vacate whatever room he was in.<\/p>\n

That was weird, in retrospect. But I sort of envy him it\u2014not the diaper, but the ability to magically invoke solitude. Maybe I am extra aware of it because I am currently visiting with my parents, and they have a tendency to shout to each other between floors, and I have a tendency to regress, and suddenly, just as when I was a teenager, all I want is to have some space of my own, where I can read, and think, in private. <\/p>\n

Reading somewhere private and tucked away is one of life\u2019s greatest and rarest pleasures. Neither \u201cUp on the Roof\u201d nor \u201cUnder the Boardwalk\u201d is, exactly, about reading. But the Drifters were urbanites, and so were the composers,\u00a0Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and they understood the need for solitude\u2014anywhere you can find it\u2014and the unparalleled delights of escaping notice. Half the point of the roof, and the boardwalk, after all, is that others are right nearby\u2014\u201cpeople walking above,\u201d \u201cright smack dab in the center of town\u201d\u2014but they don\u2019t know you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n

The best spot I ever found was in a closet at my grandparents\u2019 house, which was itself concealed behind a bookshelf. I made a nest on top of a chest of drawers, and no one knew where I was for hours at a time. Also good, and also on my grandparents\u2019 property, was the old canvas parachute we rigged up in the walnut tree in the backyard. Back home, I had to take drastic measures\u2014crawling out, Drifters-style, onto the roof, or sometimes secreting myself in a cupboard in the attic. I remember thinking there was no place secret enough in the world.<\/p>\n

The other day, I experienced the kind of primal and wholly irrational rage I have not felt in years. I arrived at the library and made my way into the further reaches of the highest stack, to a tiny carrel tucked between Art and Architecture. This is my spot: it is where I work every day, and I have never known anyone to so much as walk by. And yet, on this day, I found the desk lamp lit and, in its glow, the silver hair of an elderly man. How dare he!<\/em> I thought. And then he looked up in irritation, because, after all, I was disturbing his solitude.<\/p>\n

There are many benefits to being an autonomous grown-up. But being able to hide oneself is not one of them. We are too big, for starters, and too accountable to other people. We can\u2019t scream \u201cPRIVACY!\u201d and have people bend to our will. That little boy, incidentally, is now premed at an Ivy League university. I wonder whether the world is still his bathroom, or whether, as for the rest of us, he now has to find privacy wherever he can.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there a song about city life more evocative than \u201cUp on the Roof,\u201d the Drifters\u2019 1963 hit?\u00a0In 1980, The Illustrated History of Rock and Roll said, \u201cFrom the internal rhyme of \u2018stairs\u2019 and \u2018cares\u2019 to the image of ascending from the street to the stars by way of an apartment staircase, it\u2019s first-rate, sophisticated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[12511,13669,13668,125,11923,13666,13667],"class_list":["post-70265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-city-life","tag-escaping","tag-hiding-spots","tag-new-york-city","tag-privacy","tag-rooftops","tag-the-spinners"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Search for Solitude<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many benefits to being an autonomous grown-up. 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