The space I pick for my first essay about the public space analysis is The Barnes & Noble near the campus, to be more specific, the TCU bookstore.
This is really a normal place because there are bookstores, or even Barnes & Nobles everywhere in the country. Almost every reader for my essay have already known how Barnes & Noble looks like. Then you might ask, since I know all this, why I insist writing about this conventional place?
What makes this space appealing to me? I think it's just because I have a strong feeling for Barnes & Noble from the inside part of my heart. I am an international student and everytime when the semester begins or ends I will come here, not just for purchasing books.
I also take notes here, return books and resell the old books I have already used.
The text books here, I mean in this country are totally different from those in my country.
I like to observe people's expressions, actions, conversations not just for the essay. It is also my intereted part. A normal bookstore will not attract me so much, but a bookstore near campus really does. I can see students, professors and other people who is or might be related to TCU.
I like to guess the character or personality or even family circumstance for each individual.
For the observation, I will choose different angle. In front of the bookshelves, on a couch in the Starbucks of the Barnes & Noble, or even behind the service counter(if possible to see the face expressions of each person.) Also, I will choose different time to observe, specificly different period of the semester. I'd like to find out the people's purpose for coming here and how they get what they want in this place.
For me, I am also a part of the targeted audience. I purchase text books, studying stuffs, I return books, I take notes for the ISBN numbers, etc. I did the same or more than everyone did in this place, which makes me have a really strong feeling of Barnes & Noble.
I have both positive and negtive preconceived ideas about Barnes & Noble. As we dicussed in class, we can not divorce ourselves from how we really feel about this space from our own angle. But in the analysis I think I will be neutral since what I'm goona write about is a PUBLIC space.
I will try to be in different position, I mean not physically but in role, to observe and analysis Barnes & Noble.
Hey Shuai, I think the TCU bookstore is an excellent place to write about. As a TCU student, I think everyone has visited this place but we miss to see the small details and what they mean. So, I think it’ll be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteRobin