Eric Vilmer
10/19/20
Professor Simpson
Alaska Critical Geography
In “Survival Alaskan Style,” by Susan Kollin it is discussed what our portrayal is of the
space that is called Alaska. She brings up the example of Timothy Threadwell who
attempted to cross the line of what most people would consider normal; some would even
consider unacceptable. Her first example is Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers
living in Katmai National Park, studying bears and attempting to show the world that they
are not savage cruel creatures that many people believe. In 2003 at the end of the season
Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed by a starving bear. Treadwell did not believe in
carrying bear spray, a gun, or even having an electric fence around his tent which made the
situation even worse because he and his girlfriend were defenseless. Kollin also discusses
gender and how in many of Treadwell’s documentaries his girlfriend played little part as the
role of her was to stay behind the camera as a man showed the world that he could
protect these bears. (The scene is telling in that it shares much with the literary history of
mainstream American nature writing, where female companions typically remain
unmentioned or hidden from view.” (Kollin, 145 146) In “Gold Rush Whittier,” by Erin
Sheehy it is discussed how documentaries have become a huge in Alaska over the past
decade and how they have shaped the publics view of Alaska. He gives an example of a
bearded man who was being interviewed and the man asks if he should shave his beard first
but the filmmaker said no because it makes him look more “alaskan.” This essay comes to
show us how ideas are created about a space and looked at as normal even if these ideas
were only constructed by other influential people and are not even physical. This essay
discusses the town of Whittier which is a town inside of one giant building created during
World War 2. There used to be two but one was abandoned. Everything from school, to
grocery shopping, to leisure activities are all inside of the building. One of the teachers who
lives there first found it weird going to a friends apartment in pajamas or having a glass of
wine but got used to it because the space she lived in was different than traditional spaces
occupied. This essay is a great example of how the space we reside in can change how we
live and what it really means to be a so called “alaskan."
Eric, the way current narratives of survival in Globalized Alaska reinscribes gender norms is an important point in Kollin's essay. It is particularly important in that it asks us how do we, today, imagine the relationship between humans and non-humans, or humans and nature, and what kinds of ideologies are implicit in those relationships. Kollin is updating this discussion, renewing our understanding of the shifting ideologies of capital in the era of globalization, by identifying how today celebrating "acts of survival" as leisure practices becomes a hierarchies of race, class, and gender are re-established once again in and through relations to landscape or "nature." Note her attention to both the continuation and the differentiation at work in the narratives.
ReplyDeleteIn the era of globalization, it is also important to become aware of the way in which corporations create narratives about places often resulting in communities choosing to embrace and perform those narratives for outsiders. The power of narrative and visualization is an important one that goes back to Gramsci's concept of hegemony for us, and, imaginary or not, has an incredible power in shaping the landscape and indeed the subjectivities within that landscape.
So then what new narratives about Alaska or Juneau need to be established today and how should they be done? Good work here and Happy Birthday!