Pride. The emotion itself, which could also be considered a second-hand emotion (being interlocked with far less complex feelings as happiness and fear), typically arises in Pittsburgh when relating to sports (perhaps hockey first now, then football, and lastly, coming in fourth place in a three-contestant-competition, baseball).
Setting sports aside, the pride instilled deep within a Pittsburgher’s soul is quite simple, yet exceedingly dependent upon the name of the city itself.
I was in Family Video off of South Park Road when I felt it. Quickly scanning the new releases and wondering how many movies Brittany Murphy starred in before her untimely death, I felt it as I neared the M-Section though the word that shot a rope pulley torpedo-style into my chest began with a P. Pittsburgh.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. There it was. The cover dark and alluring while at the same time checked out, I immediately retreated to my memory. Flashes of underlined imagery swayed through my mind as I managed to bring a favorite quote to the surface: “No doubt all of this is not true remembrance but the ruinous work of nostalgia, which obliterates the past, and no doubt, as usual, I have exaggerated everything.”
While The Mysteries of Pittsburgh earned author Michael Chabon an acclaimed career in writing, it also placed into a special little locket (mine is two tone) the acceptance and acknowledgement of Chabon into the Pride. Ask any Pittsburgh reader if they have ever read any Chabon and I’m willing to bet 10,000 Examiner bucks that they have not only read at least one work, but they will somehow drop the City into the pot with Chabon. The Pittsburgh writer?
Though the writer, in the grandiose scheme of life, has relatively spent few collective years in the City, Pittsburgh makes frequent and often gritty appearances in his work (which were undoubtedly inspired by his time at the University of Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1984).
Wonder Boys, a personal favorite, followed seven years later and Chabon granted Pittsburgh a new romantic presence in the world of writing, publishing and inspiration with WordFest. Sure, it’s cold here. But the city is also home to Character. Wonder Boys is overflowing with such delicious quotes that I found myself refraining from underlining and moving right on to placing small stars next to favored paragraphs (the star system began as a three star system and as I progressed through the book became a seven star system, at which point I realized that this was a bit absurd and after reading a second time decided to mark the prose rating on the cover: Seven stars in ball-point black ink).
Falling into the Pride network is like a lifelong you’re-good-in-my-book pass, and the feeling appears quite mutual as Pittsburgh is good in Chabon’s book(s).
Story Hour in the Library with Michael Chabon
Examiner favorite Chabon Quotes
"But the boy had a gift. And it was in the nature of a gift that it be endlessly given. " The Yiddish Policemen's Union
"The problem, if anything, was precisely the opposite. I had too much to write:
too many fine and miserable buildings to construct and streets to name and clock towers to set chiming, too many characters to raise up from the dirt like flowers whose petals I peeled down to the intricate frail organs within, too many terrible genetic and fiduciary secrets to dig up and bury and dig up again, too many divorces to grant, heirs to disinherit, trysts to arrange, letters to misdirect into evil hands, innocent children to slay with rheumatic fever, women to leave unfulfilled and hopeless, men to drive to adultery and theft, fires to ignite at the hearts of ancient houses." Wonder Boys
too many fine and miserable buildings to construct and streets to name and clock towers to set chiming, too many characters to raise up from the dirt like flowers whose petals I peeled down to the intricate frail organs within, too many terrible genetic and fiduciary secrets to dig up and bury and dig up again, too many divorces to grant, heirs to disinherit, trysts to arrange, letters to misdirect into evil hands, innocent children to slay with rheumatic fever, women to leave unfulfilled and hopeless, men to drive to adultery and theft, fires to ignite at the hearts of ancient houses." Wonder Boys
"There's nothing more embarrassing than to have earned the disfavor of a perceptive animal." Wonder Boys
"There were so many Pittsburgh poets in my hallway that if, at that instant, a meteorite had come smashing through my roof, there would never have been another stanza written about rusting fathers and impotent steelworkers and the Bessemer convertor of love." Wonder Boys
Michael Chabon on Manhood for Amateurs
The Book Files: The Wonder Boys
Michael Chabon’s works:
Novels
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) Wonder Boys (1995)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) The Final Solution (2004)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007) Gentlemen of the Road (2007)
Young-adult fiction
Summerland (2002)
Short story collections
A Model World and Other Stories (1991) Werewolves in Their Youth (1999)
Essay collections
Maps and Legends (2008) Manhood for Amateurs (October 2009)
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