Why does place matter?

I have to admit, I really like this topic of why place matters, especially with it focusing on authors and writing about particular places. For some reason, lately I've really related to the concept of place, whether it's where you're from or where you want to go. It can even be a favorite place you go, or something like that.

I'm from Pittsburgh, a big city that has that small-town feel to it; the very thing that made me hate it for so long. Even though it really is a relatively big city, they say you can walk into a bar and sit down with a perfectly random stranger, and within an hour you'll realize that both of you know someone in common. When I was younger, especially in middle school, I used to hate everything about Pittsburgh, and couldn't wait to move. I had it all planned out too. I would go to college in California, live in San Diego after I graduated, and work in Los Angeles since there's so much film opportunity there. Like I said, I couldn't wait to get out of Pittsburgh. Yet, at some point in high school, I came to really treasure Pittsburgh, and everything it has to offer. Sure, you can't exactly go to a new hip club every night, or surf the waves in the morning, or even walk in Shakespeare's footsteps .But where else can you experience the true Pittsburgh 'Stillers' experience, and so many other things that can only happen in a place like Pittsburgh? There's nothing in the world like walking in a foreign airport and seeing another person wearing the infamous 'black and gold' jerseys; that's for sure. So, I can really relate to when Sanders's quote of "Each of these writers possesses a "locus of the imagination" ...and each one has engaged in a lover's quarrel with his or her place, seeing it critically in light of knowledge about other places and other possibilities," (Writing from the Center). I feel like it's almost a right a passage; something everyone goes through and experiences as he or she matures; the process of gaining appreciation for where you come from, because you can never change that part of you. You can choose where you live (for the most part I suppose), or where you hope to live someday, but you can never change where you were born. Someone in class said this the other day and I really liked it. She said how it's almost like your family. They're always going to be there for you (again, for the most part I would hope), and so you almost take them for granted until that day you realize how important they really are, and even though they get on your nerves like no one else in the world, they also love you and appreciate you like no one else in the world either. So for me, Pittsburgh really has been a love/hate relationship that holds a very big place in my heart these days.

So why does place matter for authors? Well, I think it's an essential thing for stories, because not only is it where everything is taking place, but it's so interwoven into the characters. Just as my relationship with my hometown has changed as I've matured over the years, characters have their own relationships with their homes that evolve (perhaps even during the particular story).

Sanders was big into the whole idea that an author has to truly know everything about a place to write about it, and I'm not entirely sure if I agree with that. I think anyone can write about anywhere, and it can even turn out to be a really great piece of literature as well. But I do think, that it definitely adds to the experience of reading the piece of work, if the author knows the place inside and out. It adds a certain sense of authenticity and 'real-ness.' I mean we've all experienced reading a book, or watching a movie or television show and they do something, and you can't help but think "oh my god, that would never happen in real life." That happens when something is located in someplace and you just know that what the author just wrote is completely wrong, and that he or she has never even set foot in the location. That just ruins it completely sometimes.

I find Dillard somewhat bizarre. She states that she doesn't "much care where I work. I don't notice things," (The Writing Life). Well, first off, she says she doesn't care where she writes, but then she goes on, and on, and on, about that cabin she locks herself in. She writes a lot about the isolation involved in writing, and so if she doesn't care where she writes, then why spend all that time writing about that freakin' cabin? Secondly, she states she doesn't notice things? Well, she's a writer, isn't her job involve her noticing things? I mean, seriously! I can't really grasp her view on place, because what she states is completely different than what the reader sees between the words she writes!