Conflation, Conflagration, and Connections

In working on the thesis I bent my mind to Beverly Gordon's article "Women's Domestic Body". Dr. Gordon's article examined the conflation of women's bodies with their homes, and discussed the ways in which the home became an extension of the woman. Of course all of this sounds ok except for the underlying dehumanization of women as property that this system of metaphor seeks to naturalize. Gordon elaborates upon this and looks to the etiquette and advice literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to make her point. A good read though not as relevant to my thesis as I might have liked. I amused Bird by reading sections of the text aloud to her. 

Between a trip to Blockbuster and my thesis readings Bird and I watched a lecture on fire regimes in the Columbia River Basin. The speaker, Mr. Boone Kauffman was highly amusing to watch and listen too due to his late 1990's gen x looks and southern accent. The lecture was in some ways depressing since the altered fire regimes of the west have contributed to a number of unhealthy forest conditions which will likely only sort themselves out by extreme destruction and regeneration over centuries if they are not actively restored via human interventions (which of course also come with substantial risk since we are pretty good at screwing up nature even when we think we're doing the right thing). 

Lastly, and somewhat self indulgently (as if this entire enterprise isn't at least 80-90% self-indulgent) I'd like to point out that some links on this page will now appear green. Green links will lead the intrepid traveler to photos I've personally taken...so if one is so inclined follow the links.