Thursday, February 4, 2010

Nonplace childhood




Percy and many postmodern writers would define my hometown of Potomac, Maryland as a non place. Last semester I analyzed my hometown in terms of how it related to the general concept of suburbia (last semesters overarching theme). This semester however it makes more sense to view my hometown through the lens of postmodern thinking.
Potomac, while a great neighborhood, really has no history. No events of significance have ever happened in Potomac and it really resides in the shadow of Washington DC. It is like the little brother that can never live up to the status of the older brother.

Potomac mainly serves as a residential area for people who work in DC. Droves of people make the daily migration to this grazing ground in order to perform law, politics, or any other job of importance to the city.

The area around where I lived was mostly McMansions and sprawl. McMansions define the idea of a nonplace almost exactly. These cookie cutter houses are never seen in historic places like New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, etc. Thus if one is looking for nonplace all one has to do is follow the cookie crumbs.


However there is still some stuff that is slightly unique to Potomac, although not very culturally significant. The Potomac River is a a large river that is somewhat of an attraction. My family usually goes to the river in the summer to kayak or go whitewater rafting.

No comments:

Post a Comment