emmaprad

Hi everybody
I have some problems in translating this phrase in Italian (the context is character construction):

"The autor froze two guys in time. He froze what we might have been like, and we were a bit like that to a large extent in sixties for a year or two. During that period we were hanging pretty heavy in New York".

That's very difficult to me. Someone could help me at least to undestand?
Thank you very much
Emma

MikeL

Non scrivo l'italiano abbastanza bene per potere spiegare il senso de queste frasi nella tua lingua, so I'll do it in English:

The author freezes/froze the character in time: the reference is to the cinema/video idea of a freeze-frame: the image stops moving, becomes like a photograph of a single moment in time.
He froze what we might have been like: he imagines what we would have done, how we would have looked, how we would have lived at a specific moment in the past (the sixties).
We were hanging pretty heavy in New York: this is a slang expression the meaning of which is a bit obscure to me. Probably it refers to things happening that were not light-hearted or pleasant. It may be that there is a reference to unpleasant aspects of New York life such as drugs and crime.

Spero che questo avrà aiuto un po'

emmaprad

Thank a lot, MikeL!
Emma