After reading the introduction to this book, I had a vague
expectation of what the contents would be like. Well– technically I guess my
understanding of the introduction was influenced by “earthbound” and
“Tarsenna’s Defiance Garden” because I read those first. In any case, I felt
like the introduction should serve as my key (like key on a map) for the rest
of the book– like the main components and ideas covered were all presented in
this intro and that as I went along with the reading I would recognize themes
that were hinted at and now expanded upon. Don’t know if this makes sense. I
have a weird headache right now. Basically I read the intro and it made me
think this anthology (is that what this is? Is that the right word?) was all
about certain things. But after finishing Part 1, it seems like it’s about a
lot of things, more than just the difference between white and non-white
people’s relationship with nature, or respect for the earth, or seeing nature
as either one with or separate from oneself, or the way [white] people colonize
everything and give names and narratives to things that already have names and
narratives in order to feel comfortable and secure in their surroundings.
Basically I now see that there are going to be some common themes in a few of
these stories but that those themes do not necessarily define every piece in
the collection. So far the one that has stuck out to me as being “different” in
this way is the Fred Arroyo piece. The descriptions of hard labor and the rest
and contentment that accompanied it resonated with my own experiences, which
surprised me because I had not been expecting to be able to relate to these
stories because I am white and as the introduction suggests, the purpose of
this volume is to document specifically non-white experience. “Working in a
region of lost names” reminded me of the two summers I worked at the Kroger by
my mom’s house, where I spent most of my time sweating in the parking lot
tending to flowers and customers and pallets and 40lb. bags of soil that I
surely would never have attempted to lift or become good at lifting if I had
not worked at Kroger those two summers. These were my first two college summers
and I appreciated not being in school more than I ever had during high school
summers. Unlike the school year, during which I felt like a prisoner to
coursework that goes on and on, you go to class and then you go home and you
have to do work there too, you can’t fall behind or else you’re screwed,
semesters are cumulative and even if you had a good streak of doing all the
readings for a few weeks it can all be negated by getting mono or just not
caring anymore. I hate that school becomes my life. Work, on the other hand, is
in this way at least, separate from life– you go to work, and do your work, and
then you come home and not only do you not have to do more work, you don’t even
have to THINK about work! I realize this isn’t the case with all professions,
or any profession, because this was simply a job, Kroger Floral clerk, and
that’s why I loved it. My work was all physical labor, and at the end of the
day I was satisfyingly exhausted. I never felt like my mind was idle or
atrophying from lack of stimulation. On the contrary, being bored was the
greatest thing ever! It led me to what actually interested me and most
importantly was the complete opposite of what I did during the school year.
Anyway, I am now off topic and am just talking about myself. Signing off–
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