Where the Dust Settles, Culture Springs Up

Kathleen's Stewart's A Space on the Side of the Road brought up an interesting point in her section "'Subjects' and 'Objects' in the Space of an Immanent Critique". She writes of James Agee and his insistence on describing every detail of objects in a space. She does not think this is necessary but when reflecting into my own encounter with "Other" culture, I can't help but disagree with Stewart in thinking that actually, objects hold a lot of weight.

As a writer, when I describe culture, I do it sometimes through region, through environment, food, place, and setting. I think about the "Other" culture of my mom's family who live out in rural Ohio. Entering their town I remember certain shapes of houses, the feel of driving up a dirt road, passing fields, streams, cattails and wheat. Within my family's various houses I think of the objects collected there--from one set of aunt and uncle with their "newer" modeled house, and cultureless Pottery Barn-feel to our relatives' houses who are the quintessential holders of that town's culture. Their houses are worn, lived-in with large yards and community-made products, mostly wooden furniture and baskets made by the local Amish. The Mennonites and Amish hold much sway over the little town and it is evident within the objects found in people's houses, or what is traded on a daily basis, like those woven, handmade, sturdy and beautiful baskets that the Amish sell every Saturday on the front lawn of local business and hotel chains. This is where I find the culture of this town. Not only in the way of life that seeps into every crack of that place, but also in the things that hold court there--what the community provides for itself and prides itself for. I wonder, within Arizona's culture of today, not of yesteryear, even as students of the UA--what kind of culture we hold jointly together and what objects we would say are unique to this community and to each other.

Jennie Z