Vanity Fair Corporation, Case Study Example

Certainly, rebuilding oneself in the aftermath of a tragedy is a necessary step in order to move forward in life. One important and often positive outcome of this rebuilding stage is change which needs to be seen in a positive light because it helps a person to develop new and often life-altering viewpoints on how to live and accept things that one cannot change. In the novel Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann presents this idea of rebuilding through the main characters of Lara and Blaine who experience their own personal tragedy when a series of paintings are inadvertently destroyed.

Through the narrative voice of Lara, we discover just how terrible this tragedy truly is–“They (the paintings) sat ruined, leaning against the side of the hut by some old wagon wheels. I bent down and flicked through them. A whole year’s work. The water and paint had bled down into the grass. The frames would soon warp. Fabulous irony. All the wasted work” (McCann, 127). But when Blaine discovers what has happened to the paintings, he reacts in a more positive way with the voice of a true improviser–“We could do something radical here. Do the formal paintings in the style of the past and have the present destroy them. You let the weather become the imaginative force. The real world works on your art. So you give it a new ending. And then you reinterpret it. It’s perfect” (McCann, 134).

For Lara, the tragedy of losing all of the paintings made her feel irresponsible and in her eyes symbolized the utter worthlessness of the paintings and her efforts to create something beautiful. In contrast, Blaine views this event as an open door to an opportunity to attempt something new and different; in other words, a chance to rebuild and to re-create. Therefore, instead of believing that change always signifies loss and disillusionment, one must view it as a vehicle that allows in this case the artist to push forward toward progression rather than allow himself to regress into defeat.

In his own words, Blaine as the artistic improviser wishes to do something “radical,” rather than sit around and complain about the tragedy. His progressive idea is to continue painting the same way as before, but then allow the new paintings to be “destroyed” or altered by the natural forces of weather. In this way, the forces of nature would alter the paintings by giving them a new and radical meaning, free of the influence of man and his subjectivity. No doubt, Blaine’s suggestion of allowing the present to destroy the past is a bold move, due to the fact that it is impossible to predict the outcome of nature’s handiwork which would clearly be nerve-racking for an artist who in the past slaved over other works of art day in and day out.

Also, intentionally placing a painting outside in the rain, the snow, or the broiling heat of the sun is a risky undertaking because one cannot predict how the pigments will interact with the often destructive forces of nature. But as an artistic improviser, Blaine does not even bother to consider the risks, for he views this situation as an advantage rather than as a disadvantage; he also looks forward with much eagerness to the possible results of allowing the paintings to remain outside, meaning that either the significance of the paintings will increase or decrease, especially if Blaine intends on selling them to the highest bidder.

As a human being, Blaine is not afraid of change; in fact, he embraces it with the sense of a true artist and in many ways accepts the curveballs that life often throws in his direction. In contrast, Lara views the destruction of the paintings as a personal loss and as an indictment of her failure as an artist. In her mind, the paintings have been ruined by being exposed to the elements which indicates a sense of conformity in her thinking as an artist as compared with Blaine’s outright defiance and his improvisational nature.

In an almost tragic tone, Lara comments that “The water and paint had bled down into the grass,” almost as if a year’s worth of her own blood has just mingled with the grass. Thus, the paintings and her own blood and sweat are now worthless and insignificant. Of course, this attitude does not necessarily mean that Lara is terrified of change but does show that she cannot see the importance of failure which in itself is a form of change.

In Let the Great World Spin, McCann utilizes irony extensively. One example is Lara’s observation that the frames of the paintings will end up warped and twisted because of the weather, much like her own fragile ego which has been negatively affected by the destruction of the paintings. Lara also feels that she has been destabilized by what happened to the paintings, thus making it difficult to move forward and begin to rebuild what has been destroyed.

After a close reading of McCann’s novel, it appears that Lara misses the stability of New York City, her original home. However, stability is hard to achieve when like in the previous lives of Lara and Blaine, life revolved around being lazy, partying, and using drugs. But Blaine clearly recognized this instability and suggested a new change, being to leave the city behind and move to a cabin where they can focus on their art.

An interesting side note is that while driving back upstate, Blaine accidentally collides with a van, causing a horrific crash and severe injuries to a girl inside of the van. For Lara, all she seems to focus upon is a bloodstain caused by the girl’s injuries. This is a sort of literary foreshadowing device on the part of McCann who cleverly conveys to the reader that blood or its movement will play a major role in the future via Lara’s observation that the water and paint have bled into the grass.

In his 1997 essay “Shadow Cities,” Andre Aciman describes the dismantling and demolition of Straus Park which he often visited when the city of New York was a very different place from what it is today. In its present condition, the park is dirty and rotting and is now home to drunks, drug addicts, and homeless New Yorkers. Aciman also mentions that the cobblestones are broken and cracked and that the once-beautiful water fountain is falling apart and dry. Of course, the condition of the park is due in part to the effects of the natural elements like rain, snow, and wind. Ironically, the same could be said of Lara and Blaine’s destroyed paintings.

For Aciman, the demolition of Straus Park symbolizes change, something that he does not wish to see, due to considering himself as a nomad and an exile from the city of Alexandria in Turkey. As Aciman puts it, “An exile reads change the way he reads time, money, self, love, fear, beauty: in the key of loss” (2), meaning that change always equals loss in the form of losing time because of laziness, spending money foolishly, the loss of self-esteem and self-worth, losing a girlfriend to a rival, or watching the face of a beautiful woman change over time as she loses her youth and vitality. Aciman also declares that as an exile or nomad, thinking about the way things were in the past does not necessarily indicate that the things missed were loved or admired, such as thinking about an incident that occurred in childhood that resulted in injury or pain instead of pleasure or happiness.

In this context, Lara the artist does not consider change as being good, especially when some of her beloved works of art are changed by the forces of nature via exposure to the rain and snow, cold and heat. In many ways, the loss of the paintings are a reflection of the loss of Straus Park; however, Aciman relates that his fears were unfounded regarding the destruction of the park, for it was not being demolished but restored by taking away the old and replacing it with the new. Thus, Lara would learn an important artistic and life-affirming lesson if she could read Aciman’s essay.

In essence then, fixating or obsessing on what has occurred in the past, such as with Lara and her obsession with the destroyed paintings, is highly counterproductive and can only lead to failure and disillusionment. As a metaphor, it is like walking backwards down the street or climbing a set of steps via two steps up, then three steps down. But unfortunately, many people in today’s hectic world live out their lives in dreaded fear of the unknown which in their eyes symbolizes change.

As the author of Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann, a native of Ireland, has brought together an entire galaxy of fascinating characters which when taken as a whole share one very important element–that change is inevitable and should be embraced rather than shunned. This simple truth often serves as the glue that holds the plot in McCann’s novel together and helps to bring life to the various characters, especially Lara and Blaine.

Perhaps the best way to look at Let the Great World Spin is by viewing all of the characters like Lara and Blaine as being forced to confront immense challenges that will help them to rise to the top by ignoring the past and what cannot be changed, like the weather. In many ways, the title of McCann’s novel says it all–the world keeps spinning and along with it comes inevitable change through destruction, improvisation, innovation, and rebuilding.