going somewhere?
“The process of identification is first of all a process of spatialization. The paradox of identity is that you must travel to disclose it. The Same can be recognised on condition that it be an Other. It is identical to its concept in so far as it is elsewhere, not very far but somewhere else, requiring the little move. Now discovering his or her identity is framing the space of that identity. Identity is not a matter of physical or moral features, it is a question of space. Spatialization presents by its own virtue the identity of the concept to its flesh. It ensures that things and people stay at ‘their’ place and cling to their identity.”
(Jacques Ranciere, “Discovering new worlds: politics of travel and metaphors of space”, in Travellers’s Tales, 1994)
I need to write and to have other people respond. This is mostly because I’m encountering new philosophical problems, and also because I want sympathy for a particular problem I am having tonight: every thought I have seems to have already been written. Principally, by either Judith Halberstam or Jay Prosser, who are like the twin antithetical poles I find myself steering by. Without wanting to. “Every journey elsewhere is marked for the significance of its return,” says Prosser, and I realise that the whole journey-as-return arm of an argument I’m making is just plagiarised. Halberstam in a different way: she’s all for genderqueer nomads traversing the endless plains of gender-utopia, limitless transformation.
So why do we travel, us? Do we travel so we can return home, or do we travel to find limitless vistas in which to reinvent ourselves, colonising the vistas along the way? Does it have to be an either/or proposition? In any case, travel is a great way of talking about my life right now. Last week I turned 30. I got my driver’s licence two days before — finally, those who know will whisper — and for birthday presents, a car from my male parent, and a tent and an ironic-but-gorgeous St Christopher icon from Ange. Having the car does weird things to my sense of what it is to travel: I’ve always imagined travel as a process of carrying items, moving from A to B by my feet or a bicycle, something you can pick up if need be: “You can only take what you can carry.” In our driveway, the car reminds me of its enormous weight, the space it takes up, the lumpiness and brute strength of it. I imagine lifting it as you would a bicycle: no hope. You couldn’t carry a car on your back. Once in it, I am amazed at the ease with which we move, rattling over Coburg’s pot-holey streets and down the smooth tramtracks of Sydney Rd. Fact is, I love driving, I really do. It makes me feel capable, competent, able to lift myself out of a mood and focus, psychically mobile in a way I’ve hardly ever been. This is the year for travelling. Travel to get top surgery, travel to do thesis research, travel to find trees and bush and grounding, travel for pleasure, travel to learn, travel to find friends.
Speaking of pleasure, I found out on Thursday night that Electrelane were playing the Corner on Friday. We got tickets! It was just awesome. Such energy, such total and fierce focus, such tight playing, such excellent music. So damn cute. So. I feel quite grateful. Life is good.
speaking of electrelane, go here:
http://www.queerupnorth.com/biggayread/bgrrecommends/further_reading.php
and scroll down. i think you’ll appreciate it.
(good to have you back)
Comment by sorenson — September 27, 2005 @ 10:48 pm
‘on parade’ is about the well of loneliness, how appropriate!
Comment by Administrator — September 29, 2005 @ 2:55 am
glad Electrelane were good. We have them headlining for Ladtyfestbrighton which =teh Rock and hopefully, lots of lovely money for our charities.
Echoing the ‘good to see you back’ comment!
Comment by plums — October 4, 2005 @ 4:27 pm
electrelane are fab-o. seriously. it must’ve been a totally cute show.
Comment by funnylookinknight — October 5, 2005 @ 7:46 pm
hi Az,
I love the new place. I noticed you started with a Ranciere quote. He’s my flavor of the month just now. I can’t get enough. Sometimes I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about, but it sounds very pretty (like French generally for me), but sometimes it’s crystal clear and great to an almost vertigo inducing degree.
As for travel, it’s a passion but (like the Clash, cooking, and most of my other passions) not one that I’ve reflected on a whole lot. I think in my own life I need to distinguish travel as in touring around (short-term travel, holidays), travel as in temporary relocation (long term travel, moving somewhere for a while), and travel as in the wish to do one or the other of the former.
I get travel urges all the time, and in direct proportion to feeling stuck or trapped (in what I’m doing, who I’m around, who I am, whatever), but it’s not reducible to that of course. Longer term travel experiences have been a huge part of me becoming who I am now (and of starting to make decisions about that process, instead of it happening without my active input), which is not always pleasant but very valuable. Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts on this stuff.
take care,
Nate
Comment by Nate — October 6, 2005 @ 3:17 pm
Hey Nate,
A. introduced me to Ranciere a while back, and yeah, he is pretty special. That quote above is a total mix of intelligible and totally confusing — this reminds me that I meant to unpack it at some point here and forgot. “Requiring the little move”? Hmmm.
Comment by Administrator — October 7, 2005 @ 2:57 am
hey az, i’m so very glad i’ve found you again, i was almost chewing my elbow off in boredom because i didn’t know where you’d gone. here’s an idea, travel to sydney! it’s a marvellous place, tonight the wind is howling and the trees are thrashing in the wind. there used to be a bit of graffiti around here that said ‘fuck art, let’s thrash’, although it was ambiguously written so you could have just as easily read ‘fuck! let’s art thrash’.
i’m liking this ranciere guy: especially the spatialization and flesh bit. i need to do some more thinking about that, hmm, yes, and travelling. xo liz
Comment by liz — October 8, 2005 @ 8:55 am