I'd like to pose some questions for FI staff/FI readers that may help fix the immediacy of this catastrophe in individual experience before it fades or becomes crusted over by journalistic/political viewpoints. Feel free to answer one, all, or none of the questions in the comments section. But we'd be stoked just to hear about anything.
how did the fires start?
what was the true cause(s) of their start?
how did the fires develop through time (when and where did the first one start and how did it lead to the others)?
what are the unique qualities and attributes of these fires (as opposed to other fires in history)?
what objects are connected and related to the fires?
how can we use these fires and apply them to our lives?
what will be the results and effects of these fires?
what do these fires explain and prove?
what will be the end or future of these fires?
what is the best opinion or attitude to take towards the fires, and what is the cause/motivation of this opinion?
3 comments:
how did the fires start?
A BIC LIGHTER PURCHASED FROM CIRCLE K FOR 79 CENTS
what was the true cause(s) of their start?
WAXING MOON
how did the fires develop through time (when and where did the first one start and how did it lead to the others)?
ASK THE GOVERNATOR, HE SHOULD KNOW
what are the unique qualities and attributes of these fires (as opposed to other fires in history)?
LARGEST EVACUATION IN CALIFORNIA HISTORY
what objects are connected and related to the fires?
EVERYTHING PHYSICALLY BURNED AND THE COLLECTIVE PSYCHE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
how can we use these fires and apply them to our lives?
REPAIR WHAT DIDN'T WORK, PREPARE FOR THE NEXT TIME
what will be the results and effects of these fires?
SOMEWHERE A SCAPEGOAT/CULPRIT AWAITS PUBLIC LASHING AND A BUREAUCRATIC NIGHTMARE IS GROWING
what do these fires explain and prove?
THAT AFFLUENT AREAS CAN EMERGE FROM DISASTER MORE QUICKLY AND WITH A LOWER DEATH TOLL THAN POORER PLACES
what will be the end or future of these fires?
THEY WILL BURN OUT AND SAN DIEGO WILL BECOME ITS GOOD OLD BORING SELF IN NO TIME
what is the best opinion or attitude to take towards the fires, and what is the cause/motivation of this opinion?
THAT DESTRUCTION IS PAINFUL BUT AFFORDS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR AN IMPROVEMENT
THIS OPINION WAS ESPOUSED ON AN EPISODE OF DIFFR'NT STROKES I SAW AS CHILD AND MOTIVATED BY A DESIRE TO MAKE ALL SUFFERING MEANINGFUL
The headlines after such disasters are always of a yearning to "return to normal." This, of course, does not recognize that "normal" conditions are the ones that create the potential and inevitability for environmental disaster. Sure, you can't control the weather, but this mad old planet slaps back occasionally and we shouldn't be so hurried to forget the lessons--and not just, as you mention, Truman, that disaster in wealthy suburbia is easier to recover from than disaster on the margins.
Several of the southern states are months away from their last glass of potable water.
But by all means, let's get back to worrying about the Red Sox.
how can we use these fires and apply them to our lives?
This is a very interesting question and one that might not have occured to me.
I'm wondering if catastrophic events have been adequately theorized from a literary perspective. Certainly, catastrophe, natural or man-made, is a fundamental theme. But the connections between, say, your biblical disaster or choice and the novels of J.G. Ballard haven't been really been properly delineated.
Certainly, disaster serves to fire the imagination, but why is it so generative, come compelling? Mortality, I would argue, is of it's own catagory as trope.
It might simply be that during a catastrophe one is freed of the patterns, constraints, habits and expectations of everyday life. And freedom, real, existential freedom, is ever in sort supply, verdad?
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