Culture shock
I've now been in Tempe, AZ for about 26 hours. This place boggles my brain. Now that it 1:30 am, the temperature is down to 97 degrees, instead of the 116 it was earlier today. It's not even so much that the heat itself bothers me. Believe it or not, if there's no direct sun on you, 101 degrees starts to feel downright balmy. No, what bothers me is the artificiality of everything. After ariiadne and vyrin's wedding in San Francisco, I spent a few days visiting with my brother Adam. We spent part of a day in Carmel. Much of California strikes me as more affluent and fashion conscious the Northwest, but Carmel was ridiculous. The level of materialism and conspicuous consumption staggered me. I saw this echoed in it's own way as I drove south through LA and its environs. In Tempe I'm not struck so much by the clothes or jewelry or cars. The conspicuous consumption is in energy resources. THIS PLACE SHOULD NOT EXIST IN NATURE. It is one gigantic fucking desert. I have no problem with the desert. I have a problem with the fact that so many people live here even though the environment does not support it. Phoenix proper is the fifth largest US city, and the metro area, which includes Tempe, has a population of 4,179,427. There should not be water to support all of this, to say nothing of all the electricity used for air conditioning. EVERYTHING has to been air conditioned year round. The temperature is not well suited to people. This also prescribes a lot of the kinds of activities people do. Anything outside during the heat of the day (and remember, it's still 97 right now) is considered bad. Candy tells me this is part of why shopping malls were so popular back home in tropical Malaysia. So people do inside things. Lots of shopping and TV.
Speaking of shopping- that's one way in which the natural environment is well suited to people. Or at least lazy and wasteful urban planners. Here in this valley, there is an abundance of space and no natural barriers to expansion (other than that pesky water, of course). What this means is that the entire thing appears to be one gigantic strip mall. I saw this when I visited months ago, but I didn't fully appreciate it until today. I probably still don't understand the scope of it. You drive for miles and miles, and it is nothing but strip malls. We quite literally got lost tonight in the interconnecting parking lots by the movie theater. This city was definitely designed for cars. Walking would be ludicrous. Biking is scarcely better, though I have spotted a couple bike lanes, and I plan to bike to school. Again, my mind reels at the enormity of the strip malls. And all the places in them are megacorporate chains. Miles and miles of easily recognizable brands, from shopping to restaurants and everything in between. Drowning in a sea of concrete and plentiful parking. The American Dream. After graduating college, I visited Italy. I remember thinking at the time that I didn't really understand the concept of a strip mall until I saw what cities were like that had existed for more than a few decades. In the same way, I'm not sure I really understood what strip malls and corporations and consumer culture were all about until I drove around today. The artificiality and blatant waste of space and resources make me sick. And this is where I've committed to living for the next two years.
I miss Portland so much.
Every time I see green things here, I get excited. Then I remember that they too are fake. They wouldn't exist if we hadn't imported their species and diverted water from some other more deserving place.
I haven't read LJ in a while. I'll try to catch up, but no gaurantees.
Speaking of shopping- that's one way in which the natural environment is well suited to people. Or at least lazy and wasteful urban planners. Here in this valley, there is an abundance of space and no natural barriers to expansion (other than that pesky water, of course). What this means is that the entire thing appears to be one gigantic strip mall. I saw this when I visited months ago, but I didn't fully appreciate it until today. I probably still don't understand the scope of it. You drive for miles and miles, and it is nothing but strip malls. We quite literally got lost tonight in the interconnecting parking lots by the movie theater. This city was definitely designed for cars. Walking would be ludicrous. Biking is scarcely better, though I have spotted a couple bike lanes, and I plan to bike to school. Again, my mind reels at the enormity of the strip malls. And all the places in them are megacorporate chains. Miles and miles of easily recognizable brands, from shopping to restaurants and everything in between. Drowning in a sea of concrete and plentiful parking. The American Dream. After graduating college, I visited Italy. I remember thinking at the time that I didn't really understand the concept of a strip mall until I saw what cities were like that had existed for more than a few decades. In the same way, I'm not sure I really understood what strip malls and corporations and consumer culture were all about until I drove around today. The artificiality and blatant waste of space and resources make me sick. And this is where I've committed to living for the next two years.
I miss Portland so much.
Every time I see green things here, I get excited. Then I remember that they too are fake. They wouldn't exist if we hadn't imported their species and diverted water from some other more deserving place.
I haven't read LJ in a while. I'll try to catch up, but no gaurantees.