From 1c7724604ac62b440e182479093a6b404b6bc40b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael Decker <123838726+DMecker@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2023 11:31:58 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] Update present.md --- pages/essay/present.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/pages/essay/present.md b/pages/essay/present.md index e395997..3db1c09 100644 --- a/pages/essay/present.md +++ b/pages/essay/present.md @@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ On private property, some landowners have even relocated fire lookouts and now s Lookouts are effective narrative indexes. They say a lot about where it is we have come from and where we are going (both human and non-human). Their ebbs and flows in usage reveal an ever changing relationship to place. Their existence is tied to the human and non-human worlds. They are subject to technological precarity, and yet they persist and show no signs of entirely disappearing any time soon. Their function will always mirror the prevailing ecological overtone of the time and place where they are located. -Most of all though, I am struck by the affective complexity of these places. I can't help but notice that my feelings, though not misaligned per se, are not entirely aligned with the prevailing fire lookout narratives. In _Memorials Matter_ affect theorist Jennifer Ladino analyzes the misalignment of dominant and often patriotic narratives of national historic monuments and the web of affects and emotions that emerge through the myriad individuals and stakeholders at these sites. She coins the word "affective dissonance" or the "unsettled state in which we experience more than one feeling at the same time often with a sense of conflictedness or irony." Lookouts reveal the larger narrative of the wilderness-civilization binary because they are materially and emotionally discordant. They reveal the tension of place and the dynamism of natural landscapes and how they change and adapt to the encroaching human world. +Most of all though, I am struck by the affective complexity of these places. I can't help but notice that my feelings, though not misaligned per se, are not entirely aligned with the prevailing fire lookout narratives. In _Memorials Matter_ affect theorist Jennifer Ladino analyzes the misalignment of dominant and often patriotic narratives of national historic monuments and the web of affects and emotions that emerge through the myriad individuals and stakeholders at these sites. She coins the word "affective dissonance" or the "unsettled state in which we experience more than one feeling at the same time often with a sense of conflictedness or irony." Lookouts reveal the larger narrative of the wilderness-civilization binary because they are materially and emotionally discordant. They elucidate the dynamism of natural landscapes and how they change and adapt to the encroaching human world. I would be dishonest without admitting my love of lookouts. They are picturesque and balanced, ecologically, in a way that I wish all built structures were. They are lonely. The individuals who staff them are endearing, ragtag, and always have a story to tell. When you are in a lookout at night or in the evening, or during a June thunderstorm, you feel, as Emily Dickinson once said, "a nearness to tremendouseness."