Place is defined by Cresswell on page 7 as a "meaningful
location". For example, an empty house just built, waiting to be bought is
just empty space. But, a house that has been lived in for quite a while would
be a place to someone because it means something to them, there are memories in
that house. When the people bought their house, they took an empty space,
made it their own and transformed it into a place. Landscape is different from
place because landscape is just scenery and something to look at. Cresswell
defines landscape as, “An intensely visual idea….the viewer is outside of it.”
(Cresswell 8). While on the other hand, “Places are very much things to be
inside of.” (Cresswell 8).
Place in America can be defined in many different ways. It just depends
on where in America you live because someone from the south might look at place
differently than say someone from the north or the west. I think place in
America should be defined as wherever you feel comfortable because no matter
where you are from you should feel comfortable and at home in your own place.
I find it interesting that you chose the idea of comfort as what helps to define space because, especially of memories with home, I always find the first few days of emptiness what fully defines the space. It is that image of a blank space, the area you will soon clutter with all your junk, that really leaves an impression on me. Similarly, it has the opposite effect when I leave - the area looks barren and depressing without stuff filling it up to the brim. It always goes back to that blank slate, and maybe it is because I've moved all my life, but I've never felt like a house is truly a home, but instead that it is merely allowing us to live there - the true "place" that we are staying is not the place with our stuff crowding it, but the place without the stuff. A place that is itself free of clutter and the personality of the person living in it.
ReplyDeleteI like how you differentiated landscape from place. Also, the comparison you made with the empty house and furnished house gave me a visual of place. It's really weird because an empty room that you once lived in can be so foreign although it is in the same space as your "place."
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