An early evening binge, this is,
on conversation, football, family relations.
There's the uncle still bitching
about Clinton and still insisting
Nixon got the shaft. There's the mother
sipping her wine in the kitchen,
sweating from oven heat and anxiety.
Here's the child learning to walk,
pushing books from their shelves,
leaving half-chewed pretzels for the dog
to gag on. And there are the men
watching football, whose eyes are glazed
like the optional ham.
When we were young, we were pilgrims
the day before Thanksgiving. At least I was.
Others were the Indians,
with manufactured feathers of unnatural color
sticking out of construction paper headbands.
That was kindergarten, and that's when
Allison the native
remembered me and my name,
though I couldn't place her face.
Did I forget the food? I won't use
that silly C-word, the one with five syllables,
but regardless, the counter is covered
with bowls and plates like an early snowfall,
blanketed, and, oh, so quick.
It's a lesson really. Eat it, swallow it down,
the meats and carrots and store bought stuffing
until your stomach is unsettled. Drink goblets
of milk and beer like they're bonus rations.
Go for a run around the house,
perhaps the block. Now watch!
The turnips, the turkey, the mushy peas,
they all come up warm, melted together.
Put this in a pot, you've got America.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
A Thanksgiving
I hitch-hiked a mile, all uphill,
one Thanksgiving Eve. I couldn't see
the cracks in the sidewalk, the branches
of the trees, a twenty from a dollar bill,
but I was going in the right direction.
All that alcohol is like a bucket of paint
on a finished canvas--that is, to memory--
but I wrote out song lyrics on a plastic cup,
spilling like a child; lit the wrong end
of a cigarette, and coughed the cotton smoke
up like vomit; picked a girl, tried to pretend
I'd loved her in whispers; then started to walk
against the wind and gravity, until my lungs broke,
and my body shivered sad songs. I thumbed it,
cliche I was, and he stopped and let me in.
It was a pickup. He wore glasses,
and was prematurely balding. I talked
and talked in glossolalia. He stopped,
I said good night in English. It was a non-event,
really, save for the next morning, my stomach
empty like a popped balloon, burning
like a dying fireplace. My arms were weights,
my legs were dried-out twigs. And my conscience
ground my face into my pillow.
one Thanksgiving Eve. I couldn't see
the cracks in the sidewalk, the branches
of the trees, a twenty from a dollar bill,
but I was going in the right direction.
All that alcohol is like a bucket of paint
on a finished canvas--that is, to memory--
but I wrote out song lyrics on a plastic cup,
spilling like a child; lit the wrong end
of a cigarette, and coughed the cotton smoke
up like vomit; picked a girl, tried to pretend
I'd loved her in whispers; then started to walk
against the wind and gravity, until my lungs broke,
and my body shivered sad songs. I thumbed it,
cliche I was, and he stopped and let me in.
It was a pickup. He wore glasses,
and was prematurely balding. I talked
and talked in glossolalia. He stopped,
I said good night in English. It was a non-event,
really, save for the next morning, my stomach
empty like a popped balloon, burning
like a dying fireplace. My arms were weights,
my legs were dried-out twigs. And my conscience
ground my face into my pillow.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Something like a whisper
Something like a whisper
soft and airy
warm breath and
silent bluejays
sitting on a fencepost
between the cows
and you
and I
and the nickel sun
and my hand can tell
cordoroy from cotton
otherwise confuses easily
can't find the spot
it started from
but your hand
your dungy fingers
how your hand just hangs
like an unwanted neighbor
soft and airy
warm breath and
silent bluejays
sitting on a fencepost
between the cows
and you
and I
and the nickel sun
and my hand can tell
cordoroy from cotton
otherwise confuses easily
can't find the spot
it started from
but your hand
your dungy fingers
how your hand just hangs
like an unwanted neighbor
Friday, November 10, 2006
November Tenth, Two Thousand and Six, Anno Domini
To be a man
is to shut your mouth
and suffer. You will open it
to kiss with a snaking tongue,
to provoke, to deny,
to curse yourself
under your own breath. But
a man does not complain,
even as time drains his life
like a leak
in an abandoned swimming pool.
The torture of life
is that time crawls
when you're disconsolate
or indifferent. It'll seem
like days, the time it takes
to shower, sputter to work,
struggle at an empty desk,
mindlessly tango with your feet
to a B-side in your ears,
wait on a line to cash a check
that measures you, eat breakfast
for supper alone in a booth
for two, fight to keep your eyes
open enough to spy
a digitized smile
or flash of skin.
Some will have snuck a cigarette
in the idle moments, others
will have used that time to pray.
But it will only have been one day,
and at the end of it,
Jack Palance will still have died.
is to shut your mouth
and suffer. You will open it
to kiss with a snaking tongue,
to provoke, to deny,
to curse yourself
under your own breath. But
a man does not complain,
even as time drains his life
like a leak
in an abandoned swimming pool.
The torture of life
is that time crawls
when you're disconsolate
or indifferent. It'll seem
like days, the time it takes
to shower, sputter to work,
struggle at an empty desk,
mindlessly tango with your feet
to a B-side in your ears,
wait on a line to cash a check
that measures you, eat breakfast
for supper alone in a booth
for two, fight to keep your eyes
open enough to spy
a digitized smile
or flash of skin.
Some will have snuck a cigarette
in the idle moments, others
will have used that time to pray.
But it will only have been one day,
and at the end of it,
Jack Palance will still have died.
Stan
Stan the man, he cooked a can. Made that shit into butter, my mind equals gutter when I go to the train station, I look up clocks like you lick up cock. Forget about those notions, we went to the ocean and I dumped a pound of squid in your ear. You forget what it was like to hear the ocean. I put my balls to your ear to get the vaccum sound out. Left you in ya muthas black hole. It was damp, a breeding place for all kinds of diseases including dying of twisted skull. To continue lets emphasize your rolo roll. the creamy caramel made dinner enticing. Be on time, or die death. ear pies with a hand tied behind your back and forget your name is William. If a moment I will bite the hand of art carney deceased mother. It tasted like carrot mold. You fuckn idiot. We run this cube. find a position and Ill predict it, through the old Chinese lad from the cloud with his lemon head suitcase. I laughed and drueled simultaneouusly like the play I got from Super C. Rings grow in the niether region of a cave counting features of justine batemans third pregancy. Forget about linear time, a jumped your randoplh hearst's bones. Left em a giant stadium to be sold next to mario pong. Creating my soup of life requires a skill that 99.9 percent of the population can do. Let me jump on orange mushrooms while you play friction burns on my balls. I ll take your brain and bash it in xylem mallets. The floam follows closely in second. I through the treasure chest of the bridge, attached your first cat's paw. Call me Shitface mcgraw. Im bigger than health cliff and I have no problem playing xmen for gensis all night. Challenge me Ill choke on your pubis. You play with me I just get like rubix. Alexander Von Humboldt ate the last piece of cake. What a crumb. I use 4c to produce declacies. I was stuck in the Alladian when I challenged Theorodre ruxpin to a contest. Who could belch seamen bubbles at a moderate rate. Well who can. Its fast in slow, the binary nomenclature weighs you down after a while. Spent to much time shareping pencils and not enough time massaging honey into the duke. You forget what it might feel like to feel hard rocks rub up against the suceptible tip of your promethius piss maker. I dont run with my mouth full, cause I have the tendency to take shits while listening to old country boys plan their next baby sitting appointments. I got skin stretched over your head and its tight like my W. Turn it upside down and uretha will be stolen by peter faulk and his associates the jew boys. Cant say i remember who actually freed the slaves. I think his name was T Scrizzle. Its private like taking stereo shits ac slater style in the old pre school. Took a jog to the masonic lodge, started a fire and ate corn on the cob. Got stuck in my teeth watched a dirty film, watch keenan ivory wayans get pritty trill. Kicked the tree to kick your wound. Fuckn mother nature until she swallowed the spoon. I had a babysitter and his name was duke, he sold my daughter in a slavery for the price of puke. DOnt laugh the shit happened, christmas came early and I took the non working red pencil and forced you to place it on your future neighbors toliet bowl. Coal burned until you gave me my kent hrback 87 topps. What happend, whats going on. My relations improved with the stuff that gave life to gremlins. The one man gang advanced without facing an opponent what a bunch of shit. He gleaneld the perspective from reading the floor.
FROM READING THE FLOOR!
FROM READING THE FLOOR!
'wild' fires
This topical review is devoted to natural hazards, and more specifically, wild fires. In the last month or so there have been a number of fires in Ventura County, California that have had deleterious effects on human settlements. A significant amount of resources have been mobilized to combat these fires. This topical review explores the issue of wild fires through a lens of hazard conceptualization, the social construction of nature, and the inevitable politicization of what Mark Pelling calls a humanitarian disaster with a natural trigger (Pelling 2002, CNN 2006).
The recently deceased Gilbert White originally conceptualized the term natural hazard in the 1940’s. His physical oriented position laid down an ideological infrastructure in which technological fixes could operate fluidly. In this manner, natural hazards or disasters were usually met with narrow technological solutions. This external view of nature was fresh in the minds of policy makers who looked towards engineers for quick fixes to complex problems (Pelling 2002).
In the last few decades there has been a resistance to this physical paradigm in the form of a more socially based approach. It has been acknowledged that some of the intrinsic or unchanging aspects of hazards (i.e. the physical) may be aggravated or even caused by humans. These harmful anthropocentric processes include global warming, deforestation, and even hazard prevention itself in the form of man made structures such as dams. In recent years, there has been an increasing effort to examine human activities and their relation to vulnerability and risk (Castree 2002, Pelling 2002).
Mark Pelling’s conceptualization of the hazard as a humanitarian disaster with a natural trigger is significant. The degree of risk that a hazard creates is directly related to the levels of preparedness that a given human population may have. Pelling’s vulnerability assessments of exposure, resistance, and resilience provide insight into current manifestations of wild fires in Ventura County, Ca. (Pelling 2002).
I have also chosen to utilize the social construction of nature lens to view wild fires. This point of view is a radical departure from the ‘human-environment’ model that many social scientists rely on. The human environment model has three fundamental components. These tenets present nature as an entity external to humans, as unchanging or intrinsic, and as all encompassing or universal. The social construction theory posits that definitions of nature not only differ by a particular society or culture, but also are likely to be formed by power with hegemonic intentions (Smith 1996a, Castree 2002).
Cronon illustrates this point by showing that definitions of nature have often contrasted with time, even in the same society. He sees a bifurcation of the natural and civilization in western culture. When nature is an obstacle to expansion or lies beyond the frontier of civilization, it is viewed as primordial and dangerous. However, more times than not, it has been viewed as a virgin territory ripe for exploitation by capitalist needs. Contrasting with the past, in current times, nature is often viewed as something sublime to be enjoyed by the upper classes. This brief outline of the social construction of nature aids us in expounding problems associated with wild fires (Cronon 1996, Smith 1996a, Proctor 1998).
In the case of wildfires, the middle class and wealthy are put at risk along with the poor. Hazardous areas can be attractive to rich clientele. In the case of areas vulnerable to hurricanes, waterfront ambience can be viewed as a consumer amenity. For wildfires, the topic at hand, those with exurbian lifestyles are particularly at risk (Davis and Nelson 1994).
According to Davis and Nelson, the exurbs are characterized by their spatial position between the established suburban and the rural. This situating of an exurbian landscape is quite vague. However, regardless of exact spatial orientation, this term does represent a significant residential shift. Though the exurbs are usually explained in terms of consumption desires, i.e. desire to get away from the city, larger estates, and cheaper land, it is important to look at this trend in the midst of urban restructuring (Garreu 1991, Davis and Nelson 1994, Smith 1996b, Smith 2002).
In terms of transportation, one must situate exurbia in the spatial locus of emerging edge cities. Employment in the Central Business District has significantly declined. Occupations in edge cities allow shorter commutes for exurbian residents. Exurbia must also be framed in the context of continued suburban expansion. In case of exurbia, developers may have simply chosen to leap frog over areas adjacent to existing suburbs in hope that returns on investment would be greater. Through advertisement to potential consumers, those desiring a ‘rural’ lifestyle are solicited (Garreau 1991, Davis and Nelson 1994, Smith 1996).
The very existence of exurbia, which in many cases spatially coincides with rural/poor settlements, is emblematic of contradictions that arise in the environment and the people perspective. Exurbian consumers bring many of their ‘urban’ consumption patterns to ‘rural’ space. This move to the rural is very much couched in the idea of an intrinsic nature. The ideology of untouched nature resonates in the producers and consumers of this space. By bringing their consumptive habits to these areas, they are fundamentally altering the space they live in. An unchanging view of nature elides this reality. It is reasoned that nature ceases to exist in a concrete urban locale, but can be found in a less densely populated rural area. From a social construction view of nature, this is clearly not reality (Proctor 1998, Castree 2002).
Keeping these factors in mind one may still inquire about the economic viability of building in potentially hazardous areas. Withstanding certain exceptions, (charging high insurance rates, manufacture of buildings, and use of raw materials), persons do not wish to have their houses burnt down. There is something to be said about scientific conceptualizations of natural hazards and their relation to risky settlement patterns. In other words, what has mainstream scientific theory done to alleviate or exacerbate this problem? (In a constructivist point of view, science is socially constructed as well) (Proctor 1998).
Ultimately, like many phenomena in geography, current views of fire hazards can be traced back to Davis’ geomorphological cycle. Influenced by Darwin and Lyell, he introduced incrementalism into Geography. In this paradigm, there is little room for catastrophic or rapid time events. The ideology behind incrementalism was created as a polemic to biblical tales such as the great flood. This principle has had a strong foothold in the physical and social sciences for years. Strict adherence to this slow or gradual approach has hindered the development of dynamic theories pertaining to events caused by catastrophic action, such as dinosaur extinction (Davis 1954, Sauer 1956, Stoddart 1981).
In the last section of this review, I will localize the problem by exploring some data taken from the Census and expound the political nature of these wild fires.
As mentioned earlier, human vulnerability to hazards is important. These wild fires, though occurring at relatively regular time intervals, are not broad reaching in terms of their effect on human populations. Despite their absolute numbers, persons in Ventura County have access to resources at many scales. In fact, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Ventura County in September. This action allowed state funds to be funneled into the area. According to a CNN article, as of September 26th, 43 million dollars were expended and 350 fire fighters were employed to fight this particular blaze (CNN 2006).
Only five hundred people were given voluntary evacuation advice when the fire reached within a mile and a half of a small community named Lockwood Valley. Depending on ones definition of metropolitan, the northeast part of Ventura County that these fires are located in can be considered part of the L.A. metro area. They lay only a few hours drive from downtown L.A. The Census tract, which encompasses these fires is 65 miles across and covers most of Northern Ventura County. According to the 2000 Census, this area only contained 843 persons, 92 percent of which were white. The median household income was close to 60,000 dollars (Census 2000, CNN 2006).
The previous was a very brief demographic profile of the area, but nonetheless, it is very telling. The number of fire fighters trying to contain this blaze is comparable to the number of people living in the surrounding communities. These examples show how political natural hazards really are. The ability to garner protection from hazardous events seems to be a question of resource distribution. Persons with power are able to mobilize resources to significantly lessen their level of risk.
The governmental and scientific commitment to preventing, and in this case containing fires is a case of egregious political bias. Definitions of hazards and disasters have real connotations for the groups affected. The governor’s decree of ‘state of emergency’ is certainly selective. Chronic anthropocentric hazards caused by localized uneven development in the L.A. metropolitan area are evidently not acknowledged by the state as emergency worthy. The state in the form of hazard response cannot be acknowledged as an institution or body that equally responds to humanitarian plights. The state plays a significant role because it controls the resources that can be used to combat or eradicate certain hazards (Pelling 2002, CNN 2006).
Governmental support in the form of fire fighting encourages developers to build in these areas. This process continually puts more people at risk from fires. By providing assistance, the government is essentially subsidizing further development. Coupled with an increased desire for the consumption of exurbian spaces, this ‘hazard’ will only become more pronounced in the future. More than likely, the response will be continued investment into technological fixes. It is easy to see how this cycle of development and increased vulnerability perpetuates itself. It is also clear that the state’s resources are often allocated to decreasing the vulnerability of the few and powerful, while the masses are continually put at risk from hazards that may or may not be defined as natural.
Works Cited
Castree, N., “Socializing Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics,” in Noel Castree and
Bruce Braun, eds., Social Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers 2001, 1-22.
Census Bureau. American Fact Finder. 12 Oct , 2006. Census Bureau. 12 Oct 2006
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
Cronon, W., “The Trouble with Wilderness, a Response,” Environmental History 1,
1996, 47-55.
CNN: Ventura County Fires. Wildfires. 26 Sept, 2006. CNN.com. 15 Oct 2006
< http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/wildfires/index.html>
Davis, W., “The Geographical Cycle,” in Davis, Geographical Essays. Dover, 1954 eds.,
248-278.
Davis, J., and Nelson, A., “The New ‘Burbs’: The Exurbs and Their Implications for
Planning Policy,” Journal of the American Planning Assocation 60.1, 1994, 45-60.
Garreau, J., Edge City, New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Pelling, M., “Natural Disasters?,” in Noel Castree and Bruce Braun, eds., Social
Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 2001, 170-189.
Proctor, J., “The Social Construction of Nature: Relativist Accusations, Pragmatist and
Critical Realist Responses,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers
88.3, 1998, 352-376.
Sauer, C., “The Agency of Man,” in Thomas William Thomas, Man’s Role in Changing
the Face of the Earth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956, 49-69.
Smith, N., “The Production of Nature” in George Robertson and Melinda Mash, eds.,
FutureNatural. London: Routledge, 1996a, 111-143.
Smith, N., The New Urban Frontier, Gentrification and the Revanchist City, New York:
Routledge, 1996b.
Smith, N., “New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Strategy,”
Antipode 34.3, 2002, 427-450.
Stoddart, D., “Darwin’s Impact on Geography,” in Stoddart, On Geography. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1981, 158-179.
The recently deceased Gilbert White originally conceptualized the term natural hazard in the 1940’s. His physical oriented position laid down an ideological infrastructure in which technological fixes could operate fluidly. In this manner, natural hazards or disasters were usually met with narrow technological solutions. This external view of nature was fresh in the minds of policy makers who looked towards engineers for quick fixes to complex problems (Pelling 2002).
In the last few decades there has been a resistance to this physical paradigm in the form of a more socially based approach. It has been acknowledged that some of the intrinsic or unchanging aspects of hazards (i.e. the physical) may be aggravated or even caused by humans. These harmful anthropocentric processes include global warming, deforestation, and even hazard prevention itself in the form of man made structures such as dams. In recent years, there has been an increasing effort to examine human activities and their relation to vulnerability and risk (Castree 2002, Pelling 2002).
Mark Pelling’s conceptualization of the hazard as a humanitarian disaster with a natural trigger is significant. The degree of risk that a hazard creates is directly related to the levels of preparedness that a given human population may have. Pelling’s vulnerability assessments of exposure, resistance, and resilience provide insight into current manifestations of wild fires in Ventura County, Ca. (Pelling 2002).
I have also chosen to utilize the social construction of nature lens to view wild fires. This point of view is a radical departure from the ‘human-environment’ model that many social scientists rely on. The human environment model has three fundamental components. These tenets present nature as an entity external to humans, as unchanging or intrinsic, and as all encompassing or universal. The social construction theory posits that definitions of nature not only differ by a particular society or culture, but also are likely to be formed by power with hegemonic intentions (Smith 1996a, Castree 2002).
Cronon illustrates this point by showing that definitions of nature have often contrasted with time, even in the same society. He sees a bifurcation of the natural and civilization in western culture. When nature is an obstacle to expansion or lies beyond the frontier of civilization, it is viewed as primordial and dangerous. However, more times than not, it has been viewed as a virgin territory ripe for exploitation by capitalist needs. Contrasting with the past, in current times, nature is often viewed as something sublime to be enjoyed by the upper classes. This brief outline of the social construction of nature aids us in expounding problems associated with wild fires (Cronon 1996, Smith 1996a, Proctor 1998).
In the case of wildfires, the middle class and wealthy are put at risk along with the poor. Hazardous areas can be attractive to rich clientele. In the case of areas vulnerable to hurricanes, waterfront ambience can be viewed as a consumer amenity. For wildfires, the topic at hand, those with exurbian lifestyles are particularly at risk (Davis and Nelson 1994).
According to Davis and Nelson, the exurbs are characterized by their spatial position between the established suburban and the rural. This situating of an exurbian landscape is quite vague. However, regardless of exact spatial orientation, this term does represent a significant residential shift. Though the exurbs are usually explained in terms of consumption desires, i.e. desire to get away from the city, larger estates, and cheaper land, it is important to look at this trend in the midst of urban restructuring (Garreu 1991, Davis and Nelson 1994, Smith 1996b, Smith 2002).
In terms of transportation, one must situate exurbia in the spatial locus of emerging edge cities. Employment in the Central Business District has significantly declined. Occupations in edge cities allow shorter commutes for exurbian residents. Exurbia must also be framed in the context of continued suburban expansion. In case of exurbia, developers may have simply chosen to leap frog over areas adjacent to existing suburbs in hope that returns on investment would be greater. Through advertisement to potential consumers, those desiring a ‘rural’ lifestyle are solicited (Garreau 1991, Davis and Nelson 1994, Smith 1996).
The very existence of exurbia, which in many cases spatially coincides with rural/poor settlements, is emblematic of contradictions that arise in the environment and the people perspective. Exurbian consumers bring many of their ‘urban’ consumption patterns to ‘rural’ space. This move to the rural is very much couched in the idea of an intrinsic nature. The ideology of untouched nature resonates in the producers and consumers of this space. By bringing their consumptive habits to these areas, they are fundamentally altering the space they live in. An unchanging view of nature elides this reality. It is reasoned that nature ceases to exist in a concrete urban locale, but can be found in a less densely populated rural area. From a social construction view of nature, this is clearly not reality (Proctor 1998, Castree 2002).
Keeping these factors in mind one may still inquire about the economic viability of building in potentially hazardous areas. Withstanding certain exceptions, (charging high insurance rates, manufacture of buildings, and use of raw materials), persons do not wish to have their houses burnt down. There is something to be said about scientific conceptualizations of natural hazards and their relation to risky settlement patterns. In other words, what has mainstream scientific theory done to alleviate or exacerbate this problem? (In a constructivist point of view, science is socially constructed as well) (Proctor 1998).
Ultimately, like many phenomena in geography, current views of fire hazards can be traced back to Davis’ geomorphological cycle. Influenced by Darwin and Lyell, he introduced incrementalism into Geography. In this paradigm, there is little room for catastrophic or rapid time events. The ideology behind incrementalism was created as a polemic to biblical tales such as the great flood. This principle has had a strong foothold in the physical and social sciences for years. Strict adherence to this slow or gradual approach has hindered the development of dynamic theories pertaining to events caused by catastrophic action, such as dinosaur extinction (Davis 1954, Sauer 1956, Stoddart 1981).
In the last section of this review, I will localize the problem by exploring some data taken from the Census and expound the political nature of these wild fires.
As mentioned earlier, human vulnerability to hazards is important. These wild fires, though occurring at relatively regular time intervals, are not broad reaching in terms of their effect on human populations. Despite their absolute numbers, persons in Ventura County have access to resources at many scales. In fact, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Ventura County in September. This action allowed state funds to be funneled into the area. According to a CNN article, as of September 26th, 43 million dollars were expended and 350 fire fighters were employed to fight this particular blaze (CNN 2006).
Only five hundred people were given voluntary evacuation advice when the fire reached within a mile and a half of a small community named Lockwood Valley. Depending on ones definition of metropolitan, the northeast part of Ventura County that these fires are located in can be considered part of the L.A. metro area. They lay only a few hours drive from downtown L.A. The Census tract, which encompasses these fires is 65 miles across and covers most of Northern Ventura County. According to the 2000 Census, this area only contained 843 persons, 92 percent of which were white. The median household income was close to 60,000 dollars (Census 2000, CNN 2006).
The previous was a very brief demographic profile of the area, but nonetheless, it is very telling. The number of fire fighters trying to contain this blaze is comparable to the number of people living in the surrounding communities. These examples show how political natural hazards really are. The ability to garner protection from hazardous events seems to be a question of resource distribution. Persons with power are able to mobilize resources to significantly lessen their level of risk.
The governmental and scientific commitment to preventing, and in this case containing fires is a case of egregious political bias. Definitions of hazards and disasters have real connotations for the groups affected. The governor’s decree of ‘state of emergency’ is certainly selective. Chronic anthropocentric hazards caused by localized uneven development in the L.A. metropolitan area are evidently not acknowledged by the state as emergency worthy. The state in the form of hazard response cannot be acknowledged as an institution or body that equally responds to humanitarian plights. The state plays a significant role because it controls the resources that can be used to combat or eradicate certain hazards (Pelling 2002, CNN 2006).
Governmental support in the form of fire fighting encourages developers to build in these areas. This process continually puts more people at risk from fires. By providing assistance, the government is essentially subsidizing further development. Coupled with an increased desire for the consumption of exurbian spaces, this ‘hazard’ will only become more pronounced in the future. More than likely, the response will be continued investment into technological fixes. It is easy to see how this cycle of development and increased vulnerability perpetuates itself. It is also clear that the state’s resources are often allocated to decreasing the vulnerability of the few and powerful, while the masses are continually put at risk from hazards that may or may not be defined as natural.
Works Cited
Castree, N., “Socializing Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics,” in Noel Castree and
Bruce Braun, eds., Social Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers 2001, 1-22.
Census Bureau. American Fact Finder. 12 Oct , 2006. Census Bureau. 12 Oct 2006
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
Cronon, W., “The Trouble with Wilderness, a Response,” Environmental History 1,
1996, 47-55.
CNN: Ventura County Fires. Wildfires. 26 Sept, 2006. CNN.com. 15 Oct 2006
< http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/wildfires/index.html>
Davis, W., “The Geographical Cycle,” in Davis, Geographical Essays. Dover, 1954 eds.,
248-278.
Davis, J., and Nelson, A., “The New ‘Burbs’: The Exurbs and Their Implications for
Planning Policy,” Journal of the American Planning Assocation 60.1, 1994, 45-60.
Garreau, J., Edge City, New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Pelling, M., “Natural Disasters?,” in Noel Castree and Bruce Braun, eds., Social
Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 2001, 170-189.
Proctor, J., “The Social Construction of Nature: Relativist Accusations, Pragmatist and
Critical Realist Responses,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers
88.3, 1998, 352-376.
Sauer, C., “The Agency of Man,” in Thomas William Thomas, Man’s Role in Changing
the Face of the Earth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956, 49-69.
Smith, N., “The Production of Nature” in George Robertson and Melinda Mash, eds.,
FutureNatural. London: Routledge, 1996a, 111-143.
Smith, N., The New Urban Frontier, Gentrification and the Revanchist City, New York:
Routledge, 1996b.
Smith, N., “New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Strategy,”
Antipode 34.3, 2002, 427-450.
Stoddart, D., “Darwin’s Impact on Geography,” in Stoddart, On Geography. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1981, 158-179.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Once in Amsterdam
Did you know I denied you
once in Amsterdam?
It was after my face flattened,
after I saw a red-headed Satan,
after pondering if Mario slept
when you hit the power button.
I was lying in the bottom bunk
in a room where the walls
jutted unmercilessly
and my sneaker was the size
of my head. I saw your face
in my mind, reflecting,
foreign as I was.
I said your name, and asked
who you were. Manny said
a desperate "What?"
and yes,
I thought i understood
Time's perilous, sparkling prism.
And then I forgot
some other things.
once in Amsterdam?
It was after my face flattened,
after I saw a red-headed Satan,
after pondering if Mario slept
when you hit the power button.
I was lying in the bottom bunk
in a room where the walls
jutted unmercilessly
and my sneaker was the size
of my head. I saw your face
in my mind, reflecting,
foreign as I was.
I said your name, and asked
who you were. Manny said
a desperate "What?"
I checked my watch,
which spoke to me
in Russian malapropisms,
which spoke to me
in Russian malapropisms,
and yes,
I thought i understood
Time's perilous, sparkling prism.
And then I forgot
some other things.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
There was a parade
There was a parade that day,
and the winds blew the flags
around their poles and into
their bearers' faces. The keys
on my clarinet were cold, and
the mouthpiece made me gag.
The reed was rotting and old,
and my dry lips were careful
not to catch a splinter.
I told myself to stay in the center,
not to drift my frame
into my neigbors. But my bell
bumped a floutist when her steps
stayed in place, and one more moment
I would have been on top of her.
He was in the grandstand, and his eyes
were on me as we halted
our procession.
His hands shivered. They were bare.
They shivered, it seemed,
a tiny absolution,
dozens of rapid crosses
like an erratic priest.
I heard the crowd cheer us,
and the drums marked the silence
when Mr. Maples's hand cut the air.
I kept on playing, hoping
everyone would see
every other pair of eyes
that chose to look at me.
and the winds blew the flags
around their poles and into
their bearers' faces. The keys
on my clarinet were cold, and
the mouthpiece made me gag.
The reed was rotting and old,
and my dry lips were careful
not to catch a splinter.
I told myself to stay in the center,
not to drift my frame
into my neigbors. But my bell
bumped a floutist when her steps
stayed in place, and one more moment
I would have been on top of her.
He was in the grandstand, and his eyes
were on me as we halted
our procession.
His hands shivered. They were bare.
They shivered, it seemed,
a tiny absolution,
dozens of rapid crosses
like an erratic priest.
I heard the crowd cheer us,
and the drums marked the silence
when Mr. Maples's hand cut the air.
I kept on playing, hoping
everyone would see
every other pair of eyes
that chose to look at me.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Like white space on a canvas
As it was in the beginning,
At least the start I understand,
A Something made the earth, the sun,
The water, plants to soak it up,
Animals to eat the plants, a man
To keep and kill the creatures, air
For him to breathe. The maker,
Lacking a flair for design, gave the man
Flesh between his legs, just hanging there
Like an inchworm stringing on a branch.
A clone was thrown into the world
To give it use, lacking man’s surplus.
Exterior negation. Subtly beautiful
Like white space on a canvas. We were defined.
Like white space on canvas, we were defined
By what we weren’t: shaded in.
The things around us give us shape;
We worry that an awkward angle
Will draw us wrong, mangle our bodies
Until we’ve lost that human look
In our eyes, and our arms are reaching
Out our ribs. If we only took
The time to straighten and suit our skin
To our shoulders, like an ill-fitting shirt,
You’d be sitting right here where I slap
My palm. This bench has all the power.
My hand, it falls, it’s weak and base.
If you were here, we’d define our space.
If you were here, we’d define our space
With our hands. Condense to water
If we like, mix and separate
Our liquid flesh, splash the grass
With green delight. Or maybe have
A firefight, scorch the innocent dirt
And char the victim-birds who fly too low
To the ground. A dragonfly does not have
A dragon’s breath, but we have proven
Our lungs’ air can flame, explode
Like a sunflare. So maybe we should
Stay apart. I see that you don’t care right now
But Dear, this silence is an episode.
Already there’s so much to fear.
Already there’s so much to fear:
These cigarettes will pop my lungs,
Leave them flat like empty punching bags;
My eyes will break, lead me groping
In light that only my hands can hold;
My dick will shrivel, balls grow cold,
My seed cloud out, dusty and dry
Like a burst sack of flour; Atomic bombs
Will drop like pelleted geese, while we hide
In bunkers underground, the place we thought
We’d never be, or worse, while sitting
On this bench—I’d have to see the lake dissolve,
The fish choke as my body goes rotten;
My life will go unnoticed, forgotten.
My life will go unnoticed, forgotten.
I had to write it twice. It carries weight.
It sits on my shoulders and shushes me
When I speak. It grabs my pen, cracks it
In half when I try to write for help.
Angers me when it squeezes round my waist
To push my blood into my face.
Another fear: I’ll never understand
A woman like I seem to know myself.
Of me, I know enough to just get by,
So with other men I can sympathize,
But women are a different kind.
The birthing of a child seems a pain, but
Menstruation’s something I would like to try.
Menstruation’s something I would never try,
I have to say. I have to be honest.
I force myself to neglect: This is my body.
A liver, a heart, a brain, never mind
The blood that fills my veins, all soupy
And sludgy, like quicksand, like stew.
And clots! One of those breaks free, man,
It’s hitching a ride straight to your ribcage,
Right inside where you put your hand
For the Pledge, the place where it bumps for what
Feels like forever, but of course it can’t.
A clot can stop your heart like a brick wall,
Or your mother’s look while your hand’s in the cookies.
I wish I’d eaten better.
I wish I’d eaten better.
That’s everyone’s lament, as well as
I wish I’d done a few more sit-ups, or
I should have brought more girls to bed.
That last one’s fine-tuned for the men,
But girls, I’m sure, have a similar thought.
For me right now, I’m friends with sex; no waste
From the extra flesh given me in haste
(He must have rushed it. It’s a clear mistake.)
But someday soon, it can happen in a blink,
This silly tool will lose its use. God bless
That day, when thoughts will have more room to move,
When girls are human beings too, and things are
As they were in the beginning.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Stood Up
She had a basket in her lap, red
like the blood that would flow
out her nose(on occasion),
that she filled with apples,
green like the Gremlin
her parents drove
when she was a kid, that took her
to school and CCD. She had a memory
of sitting in the back while it idled,
and when she spoke her voice
was deep and cut up, like talking
into a motorized fan.
But she did not think of this memory.
She wore a white shirt, and on its lapel
was a black and gold button
shaped like a bell, not cracked
like the one in Philadelphia,
but smooth, and flat as a coin,
so it couldn't ring. The bracelets
on her wrists would have jingled
had she moved her hands.
Her black hair
was straight with hooks on the ends,
still warm from the curler upstairs.
In her red skirt
she had a hand-sized pouch
where she kept facial tissue
and cough drops, and a cell phone
that rarely rang. She sat on her couch
until her head began to tick
with the second hand
of the gravestone-shaped clock
that stood next to the TV stand.
It was then she stood up (a dull ringing
from her wrists, not bright
like an altar boy's bells),
undressed, and went to bed.
like the blood that would flow
out her nose(on occasion),
that she filled with apples,
green like the Gremlin
her parents drove
when she was a kid, that took her
to school and CCD. She had a memory
of sitting in the back while it idled,
and when she spoke her voice
was deep and cut up, like talking
into a motorized fan.
But she did not think of this memory.
She wore a white shirt, and on its lapel
was a black and gold button
shaped like a bell, not cracked
like the one in Philadelphia,
but smooth, and flat as a coin,
so it couldn't ring. The bracelets
on her wrists would have jingled
had she moved her hands.
Her black hair
was straight with hooks on the ends,
still warm from the curler upstairs.
In her red skirt
she had a hand-sized pouch
where she kept facial tissue
and cough drops, and a cell phone
that rarely rang. She sat on her couch
until her head began to tick
with the second hand
of the gravestone-shaped clock
that stood next to the TV stand.
It was then she stood up (a dull ringing
from her wrists, not bright
like an altar boy's bells),
undressed, and went to bed.
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