next impression of Providence

It’s very hilly, in a few places almost as extreme as San Francisco or Montmartre. You’d get a workout from living here.

The back areas of old streets and houses, say 5 or 6 blocks north of the Brown campus, are really quiet and charming. That was Lovecraft’s playpen, and it’s quite easy to see why he’d fall in love with his home city and not want to stay away for long. (Although, like many others, he was fully willing to admit that Quebec City was the most beautiful in all of North America. I’ve never been there, but have heard and read almost unanimously glowing reports of the place– from Stonewall Jackson through Francis Parkman through Lovecraft through people I simply happen to know. Quebec City remains high on my list of places to visit for that reason. Also a very important battlefield there from the Montcalm vs. Wolfe fight, one of the few major battles in history where both opposing commanders were killed. This was the climax of what we in the States call “The French & Indian War.”)

But back to the topic. I think it’s important, whenever you’re writing about somebody, to have some familiarity with their physical environment. Not that you’re ever able to put it literally into words (not “the exaggerated calm of Lovecraft’s home city is probably what drove him towards a literary obsession with the monstrous and abornmal,” or something stupidly literal like that).

No, it’s subtler than that. The Providence references in his stories are already a lot funnier, and I’ve only been here half a day at most.

Previously, I had the chance to go to Meßkirch shortly before writing Heidegger Explained (I already knew Freiburg, though I have systematically avoided “the hut” so far). When preparing Prince of Networks I quite deliberately went to visit Beaune, Latour’s hometown. I’m not sure I could draw any literal link between the geography of Beaune and Latour’s philosophy either, but somehow having been there made me a better Latour “winetaster,” no pun intended. As for Meillassoux, Paris and the ENS are his landscape, both of them already familiar to me.

As for Lovecraft, if I had to put my vague inclinations into words about his status vis-à-vis the city, in the past few hours he’s started to seem like a happier figure to me.

I’d never thought of it before, but I suppose he must also have had a Rhode Island accent. I rather like them. They’re softer than Boston but still have a trace of Bostonian.