Comments on: abandoned things

By: it’s been another year | catching days

it’s been another year | catching days — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:11:24 +0000

[...] November 2009: A Day in the Life of Sheri Reynolds-the sweet in-between-waiting for me-snooping-what’s Jackson Browne got to do with it-writing retreat-a brief history of time-winter spring summer fall-abandoned things [...]

By: cynthia

cynthia — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:20:01 +0000

Meagan, thanks for linking to your photo. I think you’re right that this kitchen does look abandoned, and interestingly enough, in this case, it’s the piling up of things–the clutter–that causes that look rather than the absence of things. Lots to think about here, including how the inability to see plays into things, abandoned or otherwise.

I find myself with many questions about the woman who lived here. Were you able to talk to her?

By: Meagan

Meagan — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:21:39 +0000

This post reminded me of a photo I took in a blind woman’s house a few years ago. Someone still lived there, but because she was blind, it looked basically abandoned. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hottnglitter/147407930/in/set-1162679/

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:18:50 +0000

Really eerie photos of abandoned shopping malls by Brian Ulrich (plus an interview with him re photos): http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/ghosts_of_shopping_past/

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:22:54 +0000

Walt, thanks for mentioning those abandoned shacks that seem to be just left wherever they were originally constructed even as a crop is planted around them or a road built beside them. Abandoned shacks are particularly evocative as they call up the family that used to live there. What happened to them?

And thanks also for the link to this wonderful photo (and to the words that accompany it). Even though the structure is crumbling, its beauty is visible–the vaulted shape of the door and window, the view through to the sea. It’s almost as if whatever its original purpose was, it has acquired a new one–to show us the beauty of the past in the present.

By: Walt Pascoe

Walt Pascoe — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:16:31 +0000

When I was a child the wooded areas surrounding our bleak neighborhood were dotted w/ the remains of old abandoned shacks, some completely collapsed in on themselves, some still standing but lacking doors and windows…disgorging their sad, wet and decaying contents onto the ground; the remains of someone’s time there. Irresistibly enticing to young boys exploring their surroundings.
Abandoned things really do (as Robin said) imply stories that are ended. And even as children we were instinctively enthralled… not only by the implied mystery, but also perhaps by the potential for all of it to become a vessel for our own fantasies and flights of imagination.
Just wanted to share this beautifully composed photo w/ you. From a from talented and interesting twitter friend named Detlef Cordes
(@detlef_c) :
http://detlefcordes.posterous.com/dreams-are-water-language-is-a-net

By: cynthia

cynthia — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:41:26 +0000

Peggy, thanks for taking the time to send these photos. The abandoned sink is a strong image. Maybe because of the dark interior and the small window on the world or maybe from the kitchen sink itself, I’m imagining a woman not only standing here but trapped here.

Which, given that the sink is abandoned, could be a positive thing.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:41:02 +0000

Jeff, the single hair inside the locket juxtaposed against the abandoned skeletal remains is a vivid image and a perfect example of the power of a single detail. I’ve been unable to call up any other literary example myself. So I’m not sure I’ve been paying attention to abandoned things in what I’ve been reading. Only in what I’ve been seeing.

But clearly from your example, one way to show absence or loss or a yearning toward the past is to pit a single detail suggesting life amid abandoned things–a large Coke bottle on a counter after a tornado has destroyed the walls of a house.

Wonderful comment.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:05:09 +0000

Jackie, my husband said the same thing after reading this post, that in abandoned things there’s the possibility of rebirth, of making things better.

I also like to have order in my life and I generally try to find something positive in every bad thing. So it’s interesting to me that I don’t have your same response to abandoned things. For once I want to look underneath instead of trying to make it better.

As you mention at the end of your comment, how a character in a story responds to the boarded-up window or dilapidated door could tell the reader a lot about his or her past or future.

Thanks for leaving a comment. I hope you’ll be back!

By: cynthia

cynthia — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:27:39 +0000

Tricia, that is so true--a homeless person seems like the physical embodiment of abandoned. I also see "this could happen to you" in abandoned things, although not so much with abandoned people, although maybe I should. It's part of what's behind the question: "What happened?" Tell us so we won't repeat the same mistakes. And then can it really be avoided? It's that circular quality to life I was writing about in the comment above. That phrase the chasm of worldly neglect is sticking with me.