And suddenly, we can see this everywhere we’ve already looked.
Whitney Hanson’s lament cannot be attributed any further a positive tone than, perhaps, ‘fond.’ It is a deeply somber contemplation of the impermanence of a home.
The Visitors’ one-lined song, while celebratory at times, takes place in a house that is sliding into dilapidation. They coo, “once again I fall into,” breathe, “my feminine ways,” touching on a return to the feminine domain of song, domesticity, and decay into the earth.
Furthermore, homes, not just houses, are sites of oppression and violence for countless others, regardless of if one is outside a war zone. Wives are abused, children are thrown out, food is scarce, people are traitors, guardians bicker, and natural disasters are plentiful. Homes, though often associated with comfort, warmth, and love (especially through a nuclear, Western lens), are more complex than this in every case.
We’ve long established that home is more than a fuzzy feeling.
The unnamed woman speaks highly of a home so war torn it could cost her her life to stay there, and yet, she cannot imagine going elsewhere.
John Annison’s theory exists in order to combat the overly generous application of the word ‘home’ to residencies designed for those who are disabled, in an attempt to further create the feeling of home in these places.
Olivia Sheringham’s work, while emphasizing the importance of community and welcome, uses the practice of sharing stories about the traumatic journeys of asylum seekers as a way to drive away the too-frequent hostility they face.
John Street’s discussion of Eugene Genovese’s song from the era of US slavery is about resistance to the racism and inequality of the master-slave dynamic, and uses elements of a house to characterize this. He looks forward to death as the hand of justice.
Home is a concept we attempt to turn a house into; a process that necessitates an accruement of hardship and ultimate mourning. Poetics, such as song and storytelling, aid in this task as they articulate the dilemma of home through the imagery of a house.