Posted in Culture, tagged 2014 Mazda3, car buying, cars, geo storm, mazda, new car smell, new cars on 10 Apr 2014| 3 Comments »
American life has its rituals. Some are small. Some are big. Some mark a transition from one age to the next. Some are trials by fire, ordeals designed to break us and leave us whimpering, lying in pools of our own sweat and tears.
Buying a car is one such trial.
Posted in Culture, tagged anthropomorphism, anthropomorphize, car ownership, car trouble, cars, conversations with inanimate objects, human nature on 12 Dec 2013| 4 Comments »
It’s hard not to anthropomorphize.
My lawnmower is cranky and only likes to start if I tip it on its nose when I prime the engine. I have often described my computers as malevolent or downright evil. I’ve named every car I’ve ever owned, and have been known to plead, cajole, and beg, as if my entreaties will urge the vehicle on that one last mile to the gas station.
It’s all nonsense, of course. My conversations with inanimate objects do nothing except perhaps answer an inner echo from our pre-industrial heritage, when horses, donkeys, and oxen were our “engines,” and talking to them did make a difference.
Still, it’s hard not to anthropomorphize. (more…)
Unraveling Time
Desert Wind
Ploughman's Son
Ploughman King
The Year the Cloud Fell
The Spirit of Thunder
Shadow of the Storm
The Cry of the Wind
Beneath a Wounded Sky
Cryptogenesis: A Memoir
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 