Tuesday 9 August 2011

Displacement

Sometimes, I forget what city or country I'm in.

It happens particularly when I go somewhere new by myself, where there are no familiar 'reference people' to clearly tell me where I am. Or if someone from a past life-place has come to visit and we discover somewhere new together. Or if I'm reading a book that takes place in one of my former areas and get mentally transported to that place.

This morning, for example. House-sitting in the Chicago suburbs, I sit down to read a UK edition of a novel that takes place in New York. I'm reading about Central Park, but the spellings and word choice convince me that I'm clearly reading from the British perspective, so I look up at the end of the chapter and reminisce about how lovely the Park would be on a sunny morning like today, so far away across the ocean... and then realize that it's not across an ocean at all. Somehow I've found that my body is in the Chicago area, which suddenly seems lacking simply because it's not where my brain or my book had put me at the time of reading.

I am continually 'displaced'. Not sure how this realization makes me feel.

No comments:

Post a Comment