SNIPPETS OF NEW ORLEANS

Snippets of New Orleans by Emma Fick    FROM THE INTRODUCTION: Snippets are fragments of things. They are people observed, foods consumed, ornaments spotted: a man on a streetcar, crawfish shells on the sidewalk, an ornate cornstalk-shaped fence. I believe that to immerse oneself in a place means to try and hold all its elements, past and present, grandiose and mundane, in a single plane of vision. This is, of course, impossible. The result is fragments, vignettes. In Jackson Square, for example: a vision of the first French settlers coming up the Mississippi alongside the sight of a garishly painted street performer harassing passers-by.  If we cannot hold all facets of a place in our mind at once, I think the next best thing is to honor our fragmented understanding, to see in “Snippets.”I learned and re-learned a lot of things making this book. I learned that even in my “home” in Louisiana I feel I am an outsider peering into a window. I re-learned how beautiful and bizarre New Orlea