As a non-American, I don’t have a ton of respect for the US of A. Sure, it’s historically considered the hub of Western contemporary popular culture, and mainstream English media has largely centred it as the site of ‘real life’, as it were. But any misstep or bad luck could land you in massive amounts of debt and housing precarity, which makes it a pretty bad place to live unless you’re already rich. Where I live, it’s entirely possible to get subsidised healthcare and housing if you’re willing to jump through bureaucratic hoops, and you’re far less likely to go bankrupt because you got sick.
When I was younger, I looked at people who lived in New York City with jealousy, wondering what it was like to live where things actually happened – now, I am thankful to live in a country with a relatively efficient government and some protections for its people. But god, does Spider-Man 2 make me seriously consider moving to the US, at least for a little bit.
I’m aware, of course, that the Spider-Man games portray a fictionalised city. New York, in real life, is far more dangerous than my hometown – a friend of a friend recently got attacked on her stoop and had her dog stolen, and another friend told me she’s narrowly avoided becoming roadkill several times. The Big Apple, am I right? But it’s also one of those cities that, through loving and repeated portrayals in different kinds of media, has been elevated to having a mythology of its own. It’s not just a city, it’s a personality, a unique culture you can’t find anywhere else.
Spider-Man 2’s photo ops are different from the first game’s in that instead of photographing structures and statues, you’re snapping pictures of New Yorkers being New Yorkers. It’s a showcase of the city’s soul, the things that are important to the culture, and what makes it different from every other city in the world. You’ll see people playing frisbee while others spectate, chess matches in public parks, shirtless dudes in Spider-Man masks, buskers on the street – the weird, the touching, and the hilarious all have a place in the city. Coming from a country that’s largely been sanitised by the touch of capitalism and the intentional quashing of subculture, the game makes the city look like Mecca. Go to New York, and finally understand what it is to live.
