On Longing - Quote Responses

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale."

Standing next to the ocean or looking up at the stars and the huge galaxy they call home can make you feel so small. It makes you feel like there is so much more out there, and we’re just one tiny part of it. Realizing this puts things in perspective both mentally and physically.

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience."

Many objects we feel are important hold memories. They hold experiences we have gone through, whether they be tragedies or celebrations. Often times for me, these objects are memories that I am not ready to let go of or of a memory I never want to forget.

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three-dimensional into the miniature, which can be enveloped by the body."

A souvenir takes something like an experience or even memory and makes it something physical. Something we can hold on to. This memory becomes something that is a constant reminder of a past experience.

"Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss."

Often when we feel nostalgic, we are missing a past experience that has been lost. Nostalgia is yearning to get a past experience back. To feel the same things you once did, or see the same people, be in the same place.

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy."

To fully remember an experience of a foreign culture, we have to hold on to both memories of human interaction and physical objects.

"The place of origin must remain unavailable in order for desire to be generated."

Desire roots from what is unknown. The unknown can often times be exciting, and those feelings can often bloom into desire. Once everything becomes known often times the desire falls away.