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| Mall of America. A circus tent with all sorts of animals inside. |
I love walking malls. In the towns I have grown up in, visited, and passed through, every mall sells the same things in the same stores with generally the same layout. Big box stores on the ends of a 40 foot pedestrian street, sometimes with a balcony of stores above you with customers on a catwalk above. The density approaches a large city, and the ensuing mayhem allows a walker to traverse unnoticed. The general rules of human comfort are violated in a mall, and people don't care. Chairs and couches circle like wagons in the center of busy pedestrian streets, keeping the shoppers from spending too much time resting in the highly visible resting spots. That doesn't keep people from literally sleeping in the middle of the mall. Sometimes a person can be spotted sitting on the floor. The whole mall experience is totally insane.
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Woman sleeping in mall. This photograph has been
posted and commented on all over the internet
because people understand how ridiculous it is. |
The fact that malls are insane, and that most people agree malls are insane, proves that the idea of junk-space does not go unnoticed. Junk-space exists and its users are happy to use it, because it serves a purpose. The wool has not been pulled over the eyes of the user. Aesthetics are a rich man's game.
I'm obviously shopping at the wrong malls.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how people act differently in these junkspaces. You don't see people falling asleep in a restaurant, or sitting on the floor in a bank. And you never see people sitting in a circle of massage chairs with complete strangers anywhere other than at the mall. It's like an entirely new set of rules apply as soon as you enter.