A Superficial Evocation of Our Times

Abstract

istorians often forget about the extent to which their craft requires evoking the past—or in the words of the American Heritage Dictionary, “creating it anew through the power of memory or imagination.” Historians have different ways of awakening the past. Some excite curiosity, others arouse empathy, while yet others pose perplexing inquiries, tell fascinating stories, point out awesome convergences and astounding coincidences, or call for moral and self-examination. The stature and popularity of historians turn not just on good arguments, solid narratives, and thorough explanations, but also on a capacity to bring forth an intriguing subject, a problematic situation, or an abiding puzzle. Evoking rather than explaining the past can revivify the relationship between the past and the present and invite curious themes and fresh speculation. As dust and walking were subjects of recent works,1 my current means of evoking the past—and showing how markedly different it was from the present—is to concentrate on surfaces. I suggest that proof of the dynamic change that increasingly characterizes contemporary times is to be seen, like agates in a wash, right on the ground before us. This proof comes in the form of every surface we make, touch, imagine, and invent. Our revolutionary control of surfaces defines our environments, shapes our lives, and forms our minds. Unlike his predecessor of a century ago, the contemporary inhabitant of a Western city lives among macroand micro-surfaces systematically shaped, scientifically designed, and industrially manufactured. These surfaces have multiple and interlocking attributes. They are variously and in combination strong, flexible, safe, sanitary, smooth, bright, colorful, and diaphanous, and can be both resistant and conductive to water and electricity. They are friendly to eye, ear, and nose, fit skin, hand, and foot, and comfort our bodies. The rough and broken roadways of king and aristocracy have become the paved highways, streets, and sidewalks of modern nations. The cultivated gardens of the elite few have become the lawns and parks of the many. Our common building materials include not just brick, stone, wood, and masonry supplies, but glass blocks, ornaments of all types, landscape fabrics, concrete pavers, coatings, paints, sealants, and caulking. Tools, machines, and materials of all kinds organize, contour, and plant surfaces to mitigate dust, retain silts, and control water. Indoors, walls and surface tops are well-lit and smooth, serving quick eye and hand motion. Edges are rounded off. Materials