Space and Place

One of the things that really stood out to me from the passages from Tuan's book was the idea that dead things/carrion act as a memento mori for adults and at the same time, have no effect on young children and animals. I thought this was an interesting idea, but I am not sure how much I agree with it. I think the smell of dead animals/rotting food is thought to be repulsive because they are things that are unusual, no one is really used to the sight of a dead animal or rotted food, it is unusual and people are unsure of how to handle those situations. I'm sure that some people are reminded of their own death through seeing dead animals, but it sounds sort of foolish to me to assume that people liken their own death to the death of an animal.

Another thing that I found interesting was how Tuan said that hearing could not be used to create a "spatially organized world." When thinking of this idea my mind immediately thinks of bats, who are blind or practically blind. Bats use hearing to pick up the sounds of their calls bouncing off of structures to organize themselves in their world. Of course it is a bit of a stretch to connect this to humans, but I think it is possible to use sound to help make a picture of the space around you.