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Sad Trapped Rat Captures Zeitgeist Of An Anxious City
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 27, 2009
Modified Oct 27, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 27, 2009
Modified Oct 27, 2009
Share
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In the same way that Radiohead's seminal album OK Computer perfectly articulated the industrialized world's millennial unease, one Gothamist reader's photograph of a rat stuck in an Upper West Side sidewalk has become a universal metaphor for the pitfalls of urban living. We are all rats, trapped by the, um, race—until the city swallows us up and turns our death into a ridiculous website meme. Our inbox continues to pile up with submissions from readers around the world, who are immortalizing the poor rodent's passing with Photoshop.
And below, a YouTube montage of images set to original music, sent by one reader who writes, "Rips my damn heart out. This is gonna be like some 'Sorrows of Young Werther' shit. Masses of people jumping off bridges and squeezing into cracks and shit...."
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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