Greek and Roman Ruins
Mar. 27th, 2021 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogLiving in Europe, I've thought about whether I would actually like to see Greek and Roman ruins. I finally concluded that I really don't think I would.
It's different from seeing crumbling buildings in modern-day cities in that it's not a significant part of people's lived experiences. It's not contributing to exploitation of people who live in them in the same way. People aren't living in poverty in the Coliseum of Rome or squatting in the palace of Knossos. It would be a lot more like seeing Palenque, as I did on an undergraduate trip to Mexico.
At the time, I loved Palenque, despite it's part in a colonially-based tourist system that is also exploitive. But at this point in my life, I just don't really want to see things in ruins. I'd much rather read a book about the engineering and functioning of the aqueducts (here's a nifty one with full text available via Hathi Trust! https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015032881370 ) than see them falling down and clogged with debris.
This is another way that thinking deeply about human geography in grad school fundamentally changed a number of things about myself. I don't want to see dead things anymore. I want to see life.
It's different from seeing crumbling buildings in modern-day cities in that it's not a significant part of people's lived experiences. It's not contributing to exploitation of people who live in them in the same way. People aren't living in poverty in the Coliseum of Rome or squatting in the palace of Knossos. It would be a lot more like seeing Palenque, as I did on an undergraduate trip to Mexico.
At the time, I loved Palenque, despite it's part in a colonially-based tourist system that is also exploitive. But at this point in my life, I just don't really want to see things in ruins. I'd much rather read a book about the engineering and functioning of the aqueducts (here's a nifty one with full text available via Hathi Trust! https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015032881370 ) than see them falling down and clogged with debris.
This is another way that thinking deeply about human geography in grad school fundamentally changed a number of things about myself. I don't want to see dead things anymore. I want to see life.
