From the Far Side

Almost every weekday I don't walk to work I park my car in the same lot.  I park at the far end; usually the spaces fill up from the other.  Yet, I have found, the "far" end is only far if you think in terms of established paths.  On the end where most people park, a series of steps and walks curve between bushes, up hill and around the buildings.  On the end where I park is instead a low grassy hill, shaded by maples and oaks.  If one is willing to walk on grass rather than pavement, to climb up a slope rather than up stairs, the "far" end is, in fact, closer to my destination.  So I prefer to park there, in the shade of a sheltering red oak, wheels crunching over last fall's acorns.

Later this year I will be attending a conference at which I will be part of a discussion panel.  In preparation for it, I am looking over a sampling of related literature.  Notably, I am looking at this book by Lawrence Buell.  What is interesting is that much of what he's examining I have encountered elsewhere - the familiar names, the familiar titles, the faces on the book jackets - but it's viewed through a much different perspective.  It can be easy to assume that disciplinary boundaries are more virtual than real, even when you're someone like me who made almost a fetish of crossing them in my mad search for knowledge.  Still, I have always had my home ground, my own disciplinary training to act as a firm base among the shifting patterns.  Now, I am preparing to step off that stable ground and move into other territory.  The terrain looks different when viewed from Buell's home ground, and I hope that I will find a welcome there.  I am hoping that my path there, from the far side of the lot, will come out in the same place, that I am not lost among the maples and oaks.

Comments

[timna]

that book is familiar ground to me!

[Dewey]

This reminded me of my own parking strategies. At most stores, movie theaters, restaurants, etc., there's usually an area off to the side that other people don't seem to notice, but is usually as close as the coveted front spots. And sometimes closer.

[Rana]

timna - you too? What I'm finding humorous about dipping my toe into a new field is that there are all these works that are interesting and new to me - and yet so many of you are already familiar with them!

I mean, I've thought of myself as an "interdisciplinarian" and here's a whole field that somehow I haven't been aware of before now. Granted, I've been out of the swim for about four years now, but it seems odd to be on such different/yet familiar terrain. It's almost like I was sitting there one day and suddenly realized that there was a ridge off to the left that I'd never climbed, so I did, and there's all this new country to explore.

Dewey - yes. It's almost as if something isn't right in front of the doors it doesn't exist.

Plus I tend to like the little weedy out of the way places for their own sake - the berm on the side of the highway, the vacant lot, the cracked pavement near the old gas station, the verge behind the supermarket lot... and parking on the fringes is a good way to find them.

[JM]

That book has been no more than an arm's length away for the last six months (thesis writing!). It's well-worn and dog-eared.

I wish I were going to that conference!