In the western part of the country, the landscape is different. Here, we see green. Green grass, green plants, green trees. There is no green there. There is only orange and brown, the colors of sand and rock.
The
houses are an extension of this. They are like bricks, stacked on
top of each other in a haphazardly fashion. To many, the rectangular
houses are the first thing they notice about how “different” the
west is. For me, it wasn't my first impression, but it was the one
with the biggest impact.
It's something that defies logical explanation, but that is just the way it is. The thing that left the biggest impact on me wasn't the sweltering heat, or the landscape of the desert, or even the nostalgic memories of childhood. Instead, the thing that I remember most about living in the desert are the houses.
And I don't know why.
Works Cited
2007. Photograph. active rain, Albuquerque. Web. 24 Sep 2013.
<http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/4/4/0/5/5/ar119926379955044.JPG>.
The primary goal of the first post was to introduce the readers to the desert environment through figurative language and imagery. I decided to leave the reader with certain details like the fact that if you walk on the sidewalk without shoes on when it's 112 degrees like I have, it will burn your foot and you will get blisters on the bottom of your feet. Hopefully, this will allow the readers to get a sense of the environment with just one detail.
ReplyDeleteThis served as a build up to the introduction and picture of the house. As we've all seen on Breaking Bad, states in the west such as Arizona, New Mexico, and even California have a majority of houses that look like the picture. When I lived there when I was younger, the brick-like houses were what stuck with me the most. By building up to the description of the houses, the reader can get a sense of shock and question why, after describing the harsh desert, the houses of all things left a bigger impression than that environment.
I liked that your paragraphs were extremely blocky. Generally you would want to avoid that but it worked here because it goes well with the idea of oppressive heat and block-like houses. The background image is also well chosen because it definitely describes the scenery and I'm glad you included a picture of one of the houses just so I could have a really good visualization of it. I have seen them on Breaking Bad but I've never lived in or even visited a place out West so it was helpful when I was trying to grasp exactly what struck you about it. I think it was a wonderful and ironic twist to explain that the heat and the blisters and the otherwise physical discomforts made less of an impact on you than the houses. No one would be expecting that so it put a little interesting spin on it. I also really liked the phrase "heat and houses;" I used it in my blog directly and made it the link to your blog hahaha.
ReplyDeleteAs for the downsides, I think you could have given a bit more unique and specific information about the place. It can be hot everywhere (it being so vague actually helped me integrate your place into my place which is located an entire country away). The background image also works against you maybe in the fact that it puts the landscape in a more prominent position than the houses which is exactly the opposite of how you feel about this place. Usually a background image wouldn't work that way but because the written part is transparent, the background is tiled, and the picture of the house is so much smaller in comparison I think it makes the idea of the landscape overpower the idea of the houses. I would've also liked to see more of a narrative component, like I'm a comrade walking around with you or you're telling me something as a friend, you know? I guess just more of a personal touch.
Overall though, I was really happy to get this blog and I liked it a lot.