Cape Cod Stories: Placing with Thoreau
There is something ironically bold and unoriginal about placing yourself where other writers have gone before. Placing literally. Placing figuratively.
This year I am placing myself on Cape Cod.
It happened first by an almost casual decision. Where would I go this summer, to build our regional library of literary tours? It has become important to me to not simply “tour” literary history on the cloud of the internet, on an e-reader, or a random pick from the library, but rather to really place myself (and, therefore Tweetspeak) in actual settings—to meet people, touch landscapes, breathe different qualities of air (if you don’t believe me, try it sometime; taste the air; it differs wherever you go).
The Cape will be salt. And I love salt maybe more than the average person who simply takes it up in a fast-food diet, unawares. I have even been told by a doctor—God bless her—to add salt liberally, drink it mixed with water if I like—to balance my surprisingly low blood pressure. You might not take me for a person who has low blood pressure, but the natural state of my body is so calm as to set the medical establishment to wondering about my viability for Olympic-level sports. Not that anyone has ever taken me for the type to win Olympic gold on the luge, but that is another story entirely, set in winter, and perhaps not important here...
***continue reading Cape Cod Stories: Placing with Thoreau***
This year I am placing myself on Cape Cod.
It happened first by an almost casual decision. Where would I go this summer, to build our regional library of literary tours? It has become important to me to not simply “tour” literary history on the cloud of the internet, on an e-reader, or a random pick from the library, but rather to really place myself (and, therefore Tweetspeak) in actual settings—to meet people, touch landscapes, breathe different qualities of air (if you don’t believe me, try it sometime; taste the air; it differs wherever you go).
The Cape will be salt. And I love salt maybe more than the average person who simply takes it up in a fast-food diet, unawares. I have even been told by a doctor—God bless her—to add salt liberally, drink it mixed with water if I like—to balance my surprisingly low blood pressure. You might not take me for a person who has low blood pressure, but the natural state of my body is so calm as to set the medical establishment to wondering about my viability for Olympic-level sports. Not that anyone has ever taken me for the type to win Olympic gold on the luge, but that is another story entirely, set in winter, and perhaps not important here...
***continue reading Cape Cod Stories: Placing with Thoreau***
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