This time in Boston has been intense and an incredible challenge. I'd like to mention that I would rather type this in Helvetica. Why? Because it is known as the anonymous type font. I think the notion of anonymity is something that this city does not imply. The sidewalks are wide and the people are generally agreeable. There is an immediate sense of belonging here that I have not experience anywhere else thus far. New York is a hurried city where the people tend not to really notice one another where as Dallas is a city that is full of waves of hellos. There are many differences in the places I have been, yet none compare to Boston. Perhaps my need to feel anonymous is stemming from my need for alone time that has not been prevalent in this week's intensive. This lack of time in my own place has given me the chance to notice that a true Boston city life really puts you in the public spectrum. I can now for the first time, understand the need to retreat. Perhaps this is a response to the current uprooting, or it is a comment on the idea in order to be anonymous, in a sense get lost within a city or your mind, you need to have known your way. Now I bet this is probably the most confusing blog I have rattled off; stick around it will get better or worse. This commentary is in response to the article, Space, Place, and Ethos: Reflection on the Ethical Function of Architecture; I really enjoyed the material and it created a lot of reflection. On page 165, "Our experience of space is essentially regional. in this case the region is a room." I'd like to be alone now in my room. Well back to work for now.
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3 comments:
Kara,
You absolutely Right!
There is an immediate sense of belonging here in Boston.
The only city i felt i am home rather than my home town Alexandria
is Boston.
Boston is a think tank for the now a days world.
Amr
Something can be said as to why people feel the sense of belonging in Boston, as opposed to say New York.
When I first went to New York, It overwhelmed me, not in a bad way, but it certainly took my breath away. The undifferentiated scope of the city, the extensive grid, a sameness and vastness about it. I first visited Boston a number of years ago, and found that I was overwhelmed in a different way. Boston is a tangled agglomeration of neighborhoods, more than it is a unified city. Brighton, Alston, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, The North End, the South End, Roxbury.... When addressing mail in Boston it is completely appropriate to list the neighborhood in lieu of the city.
By breaking the size of the city down, is it easier to find one's niche?
One of my favorite things about living in Oakland is that there were dozens of small neighborhood centers, a string of four or five blocks on one street where you could find lots of diverse restaurants, a bookstore, a music store, doctors and dentists and therapists, a movie theater -- all surrounded by an identifiable residential district. So "Oakland" became less central in my imagination, replaced by "Chinatown" and "Rockridge" and "Temescal" and the "Dimond District" (yes, that's spelled right...) and "Piedmont Avenue" and so many others.
Kara, if you look back in my blog, you'll find an entry from last semester called "A word we think we know...". It's about privacy, and how such a simple word is far richer than we imagine.
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