Space Puppeteer

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

and it's fucked up! because circumstances aligned that just as gen z grew up and lost their innocence, so too did the places they frequented fall into disrepair; what more poignant metaphor could you find for dead decadence than having the excesses of your childhood literally fall apart as you grew up? and its so interesting, because it''s not quite the same fear as the dark forest full of monsters that preceded the liminal spaces movement; humanity has long moved past being seriously threatened by packs of wolves or stray bears, and so the mythology around them stagnates. but that level of industrialization, the building of ever-bigger buildings, the stripping of human imperfection in favor of mass-production, the pervasive sense of not fitting into a world that was supposed to be promised to you? that has shaped the concept of a "liminal space" in a facinating way. i think that's why the liminal spaces movement is dominated by man-made locations- to the point where even when set outside, the focus is specifically on an artificial element of the landscape. the mass-production, the sameness of modern architecture- it's expressed by exaggerating it, stretching what would be in reality large but walkable buildings into expansive labyrinths with no rhyme or reason to their construction- which, of course, is the point; that instead of there being no reason for it's existence, like a dark forest, there is a theoretical purpose that these buildings are fulfilling- one that is entirely exclusive of you. it's an expression of decadence a level above dead rich people haunting their own hoarded wealth; a building built entirely for it's own sake, built until it encompasses the entire world, where humanity has been entirely excised. to a generation that now worries more about the seemingly unknowable whims of corporations, dead decadence no longer means old castles and dilapidated manors where one rich man lived and died- it means empty suburbs where no one lives, grungy shopping malls with every booth shuttered, playgrounds and arcades left to rot at the will of an ambiguous gestalt for reasons strange and opaque.

*checks wiki*

Not every white person dating a POC is fetishizing. White people can be respectful and responsible when it comes to culture and relationships and not everyone has bad intentions.

Asian people can date Black people without you saying shit like “your kids will be so pretty” they’re not dating for pretty kids. They’re dating bc they like each other.

Someone can dress their partner in clothing from their culture if they want. Someone can take their partner to cultural events if they want.

People in relationships can share cultures, experiences and love without it being toxic or skin deep.

Their partner isn’t culturally appropriating. Their partner is being shown the ultimate form of love, bc their partner trusts them and loves them enough to share their history and heritage.

Yeah, dating someone from your culture is nice bc you automatically have similar experiences. But you’re not limited to dating people with the same experiences. Loving someone is sharing and growing and being together.