An example of that rural nostalgia embedded in a particular look or aesthetic that we have been talking about [Link] I bought the Thomas the Tank Engine stories for my Ben today. The series does very well in the US and plays heavily on something I thought quite unique to the UK – not just…
heritage
the innocence of rural remains?
Thanks to Cornelius, Matthew and Troels for some very astute comment on the recent BBC item about the decline of the English countryside and its transformation into a cultural or heritage playgound – [Link] Key points for me – the remains of the past are wrapped up in relationships between city and “countryside” (a great…
loss and history’s physiognomy
An elegy for the UK countryside Item in the BBC Magazine. Half a century ago, probably even in the last two or three decades, the UK countryside had a definite purpose. It was essential to the entire country, because it was where much of our food was produced, which meant employment. Today we depend on…
archaeological intimacy – on looking at everyday things
Meg Butler left a wonderful story as comment on the photos of the apartment in San Jose. Both the pictures and your comments remind me of a small town in Texas that I visited. My first impression was of a dying town. It isn’t on a main highway or interstate, it isn’t touristy in any…
the archaeological imagination
Some years ago back in Lampeter Julian Thomas and I used to talk about something we called the archaeological imagination. We were close to a host of superb human geographers in the next corridor who were reshaping their field (Chris Philo, Ulf Stroymeyer, Catherine Nash, Ian Cook, Tim Cresswell, Hester Parr, Miles Ogborn, Joe Painter,…
Greek Olympics?
An intelligent comment today in the NYT on the mismatch between modern and ancient Olympics [Link – “The Way We Live Now: What Olympic Ideal?” – Daniel Mendelsohn (Princeton)] (Thanks to Jody Maxmin for putting me on to this.) Main point – the Greeks were very different to how most people imagine them to be….
You must be logged in to post a comment.