[Xmca-l] Perceptions of Space in Spring 2020

[annalisa@unm.edu]

Hello fellow Xmcars,

Interesting threads.

I've been away from the list for sometime, likely I've missed a lot.

I was thinking about the naming of viruses, and it seems to me that metonymy is usually how it happens.

Black Plague had to do with symptoms; Swine Flu, Mad Cow Disease, Spanish Flu I think from where they originated or first observed. Both have to do with not the literal viral microbe, but a WHERE it was noticed first or a WHAT it did to bodies.

I got thinking about David's observations about naming and I thought ...isn't it actually that there is one meaning with many names? For example a cup can be, as an object, attached to different sounding words in different languages, but then there are also synonyms, such as goblet (in English, vis á vis "cup").

If I might presume a little bit (I hope that is OK to do) that Julian was objecting to the twisting of meanings, not names. To take the name Covid-19 to say that instead of being observed in 2019 (also metonymy in terms of a WHEN it was observed), it is (falsely claimed ) that it evolved and mutated 19 times, as if the statement was like an automobile ad ---> Have you driven virus lately?

But more than that. I also feel that there is a deeper repugnancy because what Kellyanne Conway has done was to trivialize the science, and to reduce the pandemic to fashion of what is "in" or "out." And given how this pandemic has impacted so many lives, it's simply not at all funny. Hence the ironic Ha Ha. I heard the clink of chains for sure.

Certainly irony is the only defense we have left if there are any thinking Americans left, which might be on the Left. I would like to hear more from the Right and not the alt-Right. I just want to know if there is anyone still thinking on the Right? I do not mean to offend anyone on this list. Just present me with an argument that is coherent so that I know you are still out there? I might not agree, but I can at least grasp any logic within and see there is something in common that we agree about in meaning, even if we disagree in execution.

(parenthetical inclusion: I mean could anyone admit to missing William F Buckley, Jr.? I do. I searched "conservative writers" right now and this list is from about a year ago. Charles Krauthammer has passed on, and George Will is missing from that list, is it because he's too liberal? Too centrist? https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thoughtco.com/top-conservative-columnists-3303483__;!!Mih3wA!Wom8Qw1MW32frXN53_QuKPoBJzwycGJV_R3ZlbH8mye4848I_Vi3sePUKuvZFOKNaig-oA$  So really there are only nine left. I don't want to firebomb OUR list with the names on THAT list, so if you don't want to be upset, do not click this link, and please do not start a flamewar because you did, it isn't my intention).

Myself, I have thought a lot about how the macro and the micro are smashing together before our collective eyes. How can such a small microbe have such a huge impact globally??? And here it is! This is what it's like! What is our unit for analysis in this giant yet delicate experiment of which we are a part?

Then I was pushed to think about my appreciation of space, that space between (i.e., the gap), after I read this recent article by Ian Bogost: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/smartphone-has-ruined-space/605077/__;!!Mih3wA!Wom8Qw1MW32frXN53_QuKPoBJzwycGJV_R3ZlbH8mye4848I_Vi3sePUKuvZFOJcQvl4aQ$ 

I myself as of late have been appreciating small things. Like how much I like eating an appropriately ripe avocado out of the skin with a spoon. It was picked by someone in an avocado grove, but it started growing on the tree before this virus hit. Or seeing my barista friend (masked in a bandana with stars and stripes) during my transgression to venture out in the afternoon for my non-essential (though essential to me) cortados, which he makes so nicely. Or how about the meaning of pajamas (i.e.,comfortable clothing) that I'm wearing too much? (i.e., Hand Washing and Clean Laundry!) I was so so relieved that JoAnn's Crafts and Fabrics was still open, though with reduced hours. Before knowing this, I thought what if I can't buy a needle, what will I do??? Delighted they were open, as I walked through the store I thought, I'll bet there are legions of newly-identified crafters forming right now (which I hope is a balm to Bonnie). Women's hands always have needed something to do when space was relegated and confined. Needlework is still work. I really needed this outlet while my internet connection was down. Talk about being in confinement.

The space of isolation can be a good thing for the mind (think about all those meditators who are really making hay right now!!) but not always if one isn't used to being alone or going without one's space augmented with screens and devices. It's weird to watch Knightfall, a TV series on Netflix, and a dramatized (somewhat badly) fictional account of the Knights Templar, when guns had not replaced the sword, and there was no refrigeration or running water. Chainmail and armor will not protect you now.  I guess I needed a dietary supplement of violence and filth to remind myself of what I enjoy now in modern times. I object to how they depict the Cathars in a demonized light. Because I'm of a different time and place, I do not think I'm not offending anyone for saying that.

To mark time (when I'm not watching movies and snacking too much), I have begun to make friendship bracelets.

I like the naming of that object, something macro (friendship) with something micro (bracelet) smashed together. Simple cotton threads knotted in a pattern that build to a band to decorate someone's wrist, but not just anyone's – a friend's. "Friendship" in that these objects are labors of love given to people I know. I couldn't be paid enough to do this for a living. I did not know that there is a very vibrant community of knotters online. But there are. Check out braceletbook.com, a very crafty name. And lots of youtube how-to videos galore. If you have kids needing something to do, this might be a Good Thing.

Right now, I feel we are more fortunate than not to have connection online, than not at all. Imagine how difficult it was in 1918, given the means of communication then. We will likely beat this pandemic with less death than that pandemic, if only because we can distribute communications in a timely manner.

There is nothing scientfic about staying indoors, it's pretty low-tech. It's just common sense. (I consider the juxtaposition of "common" and "sense" and hope that too is not a loaded term but they are also possibly a smashing together of the macro and the micro).

In our imaginations, we can remain in our spaces and envision connection to the world anywhere we are. I think Bogost's article in the Atlantic is his observation about how our perceptions of space are changing but that this is not so easy to detect perhaps for those who have never known what life was like before the ubiquity of the Internet was so readily delivered by smartphones. Our minds are certainly being changed from these spatial experiences being drawn so tightly so fast.

I want to believe that for having human bodies (with millions of years of evolution behind us) we will always be reawakened by nature's calm and quiet and its patient observance for the passing of time. Everyone where I live seems to be out walking, not at once, and not always masked (to my dismay) but usually in the evening to soak in the last part of the sunlight of the day, something impossible to do indoors. Screens and devices might seem to divide or concatenate our spaces artificially, but I trust these artificial experiences can live in harmony with our relationship nature; It's not mutually x-clusive.

I'd like to ask anyone to perhaps consider how this experience has made you connect the macro to the micro in your life in "lockdown". I'm really curious what new appreciations you have discovered in your own experiences.

Would anyone like to share their own new experiences of space?

Kind regards,

Annalisa



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