1.3: Geography is a Way to See the World- Jedi Goggles

The ability to “read” the landscape is the first skill of the Jedi-Geographer. It sounds simple enough, but advanced ability in landscape interpretation takes many years to develop. Generally, people are not aware that all landscapes, including both the human-built and the natural, physical environment, can be read, somewhat like you read text in a book. With some practice, you can develop a measure of landscape literacy, which is the ability to “read” and understand a significant number of messages inscribed into the environment. All landscapes tell a story. Throughout this text, there are opportunities for you to learn to read them. This skill is referred to as using your “Jedi Goggles.” Noted scholar Aldo Leopold also thought this an important skill, noting, “The objective is to teach the student(s) to see the land, to understand what [they see], and enjoy what [they] understand...”

Figure 1-3: Las Vegas, NV. Casino landscapes often evoke exotic locations to heighten the excitement of gamblers, who then are more likely to spend more prolifically once the landscape conditions their mood properly.

Certainly, you already have some skill reading the landscape, but most non-geographers do not read the landscape well because they do not think to do it consciously or regularly. Like a Jedi without training, you have occasionally put on “Jedi Goggles” but maybe didn’t think about what you were doing. For example, you have probably at some point found yourself driving in a dangerous neighborhood. Of course, there are no road signs at the borders of a high crime neighborhood warning, “Caution – Now Entering Dangerous Neighborhood”. Still, you know to be cautious. Why? Because- you have developed some skill reading the landscape over the years. Rubbish on the street, graffiti, bars on windows and unkempt lawns are common landscape markers(visual cues) of a neighborhood that suffersfrom crime; your sense of self-preservation has prompted you to learn to interpret landscape symbols associated with danger. Many police and people who are “street smart” have well-developed “Jedi Goggles”.

The first step you must take as you develop landscape literacy skills is to begin actively looking more closely at stores, rivers, houses, parking lots, road signs, empty lots, farm fields, hillsides and anything else that passes your windshield. As you look, think to yourself, “What is this landscape telling me?” There’s no need to focus on “pretty” landscapes because beautiful, scenic, impressive or extraordinary landscapes are no more important than those that are boring, ugly or commonplace. The ordinary, everyday landscapes, called vernacular landscapes are, as Peirce Lewis noted, our “unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, our values, our aspirations and even our fears in tangible visible form.” There is a reassuring honesty one gets reading vernacular landscapes. The lack of intentionality makes landscapes a source of unvarnished truth about a place’s history, unlike purposefully written histories that are often prone to biases and outright lies.

This text will help you learn to read the cultural histories of various places and regions as they have been written on the landscape. Hopefully, by the end of the semester, you’ll find yourself asking “What does this scene tell me about this place?” Hopefully, you’ll begin to see patterns you never noticed before and you’ll be trying to guess what forces created that which you see. With luck, you may find yourself asking “Why is this here, and not elsewhere?” Each chapter in this book features multiple images of landscapes. Most images are captioned with a quick “reading” of the images. A large photographic database, available online at The American Landscape Project, has many thousands of the images used in this text and many feature robust captions to help you learn to confidently read landscapes.