Call for Submissions: 8.3 The Place Issue

place /plās/ noun

 

1. a particular position or point in space.
2. a portion of space available or designated for or being used by someone.
3. a position in a sequence or series, typically one ordered on the basis of merit.

 

Be here now.

The power of place is considered elemental to storytelling. Place is the context in which things happen. But when we articulate “place,” it is one of those English language words that can have so many allusions: a particular point in physical space; a location in memory, time, or imagination; a position of rank or status or merit.

The reason physical locale is important is because it doesn’t only relate to a particular point in space, but rather the cultural and evolutionary attributes associated with that place.

“Often the places we grow up in have outsized influence on us. They influence how we perceive and conceptualize the world, give us metaphors to live by, and shape the purpose that drives us — they are our source of subjectivity as well as a commonality by which we can relate to and identify with others. Maybe it’s because of the vividness of their sensory impressions, their genius for establishing deep relationships to their early environments, that children have a strong capacity for the human emotion called topophilia.

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Across cultures, navigation is influenced by particular environmental conditions — snow, sand, water, wind — and topographies — mountain, valley, river, ocean, and desert. But in all of them, it is also a means by which individuals develop a sense of attachment and feeling for places. Navigating becomes a way of knowing, familiarity, and fondness. It is how you can fall in love with a mountain or a forest. Wayfinding is how we accumulate treasure maps of exquisite memories.” M.R. O’Connor.

In media for the Secret of Our Success, evolutionary biologist Joseph Henrich states, “As both Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek argued long before Erik and me, it’s our automatic norm following—not our self-interest or our cool rational calculation of future consequences—that often makes us do the ‘right thing’ and allows our societies to work. This means that how well a society functions depends on its package of social norms.

“Thus, the world that cultural evolution often creates is one in which different groups possess different social norms and where norm boundaries are often marked by language, dialect, dress, or other markers….

“Recognizing that we are a cultural species means that, even in the short run (when genes don’t have enough time to change), institutions, technologies, and languages are coevolving with psychological biases, cognitive abilities, emotional responses, and preferences. In the longer run, genes are evolving to adapt to these culturally constructed worlds, and this has been, and is now, the primary driver of human genetic evolution.”

Thus, our location in the world is a driver of our unique story through our cultural references; our understanding of history, time and memory; and how we see ourselves in the greater society.

Psychological attachment to place can be so strong, in fact, that it can even limit creativity. In Triggering Town, Richard Hugo says unfamiliarity with a location breeds effectiveness in clarity of emotion in storytelling. Predetermined emotional attachment to familiar locations can muddy the narrative because, “[y]our hometown often provides so many knowns that the imagination cannot free itself to seek the unknowns.”

For this issue, we are looking for writing that explores how the concept of how place influences your culture, language, and evolution.  Is your story shaped by your experience? Or is the narrative of your storytelling more clearly wrought when your locale is fantastical? How much does your culture influence the story you tell yourself? What is the relevance of place to your world? To your storytelling? What place is special to you and why? How much of your personality is determined by the place you grew up? Place isn’t just a physical location: it is tenors, norms, seasons, flora and fauna. Tell the readers about it and move the Sisyphus conversation.