Thursday 15 May 2008

The Childhood Event




























In Juhani Pallasmaa's notes about home and feelings and how it can reflect on humans, there is a great stress on the childhood memory and how it is the strongest mark on a person's character. We studied that in "Theory of Architecture" class three years ago, and still the thought in my mind, until I found a pattern of reference whenever I watch a lecturer starting his/her lecture. Usually when a lecturer starts -especially if new to the audience- he/she starts with his childhood memory (except those who start with the sentence: "..........." is life and the dotted is their profession).

This made it very interesting to me because people started to be a bit categorized .. People have unique and different details about their childhood, which is what Pallasmaa claiming for, but aside from that, there is a very strong generalization in the subject.

Thus, those who were children in the '60s and '70s in America are seen very interested in Physics and they are mostly want to explore the space or they're into the major idea of "dreams come true", which might be referred to the most general event: MAN ON THE MOON.

Locally in Kuwait, people who were children in the '50s and '60s are more keen for a modern country they are very open minded and accepting very ideas they are also revolutionary and have a great passion for change in some remarkable cases, so can it be from the tag line: KUWAIT MODERN BOOM or also ARABIC REVOLUTION.

Those who were children in the '70s in Kuwait are to my knowledge very interested in Technology, science fiction and detection but also the history about first and second world war affect them to serial thinking and also very dreamy. their tag is: TECHNOLOGY.

As for those who were children in the '80s mostly in Iran and Kuwait there is a great affection of WAR which -as children- it doesn't affect them in being depressed rather than get them into being fighters and pioneers they like to stay on the edge, very risky with a rich imagination.

Now those tag lines are the most significant EVENTS in a local area and as the childhood memory is the strongest in a person's affections I think these qualities mentioned above are very reliable. Of course each person has its precise references and details yet a very dominant event can have a stronger impact on a child.

For example to an adult, the war can be a sign for depression, but to a child it is an adventure! To an adult technology is a sophistication, while to a child it is a new world.. The revolution and change to an adult can be a sign for greed, war and unsettlement. But for a child it is a significant passion.. My mother was born in the '50s, you see her until now always interested in the human causes like racism and peace. Revolutions is always a trigger in her mind, and she finds it a natural thing in the human nature, which my father -seven years older- disagrees with her in that.

People are continuously changing "subjects" yet, there is always a moment of reference and sure has a dominant reaction as long as the reception of a human nature is in "whole" and "parts".

This brings two more thoughts:
1. History isn't really history as it absorbed in the human nature.
2. The estimation of balance between peace and war (or in a better sense: "science" and war) is always there and kind of setting a balance in the human nature.

[I didn't really do a scientific research on that, it is all based on my personal analysis from social activities and my general knowledge in history.]

5 comments:

SolaimaN said...

come on deema ,,!!

I'v been touched by this mad post

you are absolutely right

don't u ever said (I didn't really do a scientific research)

this exactly what i feel now

wallah el3theem

this post is really nice and longer than appears

Baldy_ said...

Details of a space, "elbait el mahjoor 3end ras el3ayer"
details of my childhood..i remember!! "bafak elli ydamer"
"kitko khawatem"
series of events!! but we remember the tiny little things that made a difference back then!!
for an example..
all houses were alike to us!! but what made them different?! to our tiny little minds?? shelly farag bait edaida 3an betna ow bait
3ammi 9ali7?:P
thats exactly what those little silly details were there for.!
its true that when we get older in age we become more obsessed with the bigger picture which makes life a lot easier to comprehend, but i remember when we were kids!! we are complicating things!! and looking down into matters trying our best to discover the tiny little details about a bigger matter or an issue.. and then we go back and take a look at the bigger picture and start to connect the lines!! the memories!! things that would make sense!!.

Deema said...

Solaiman:

yeah i think it is true
sometimes things that we realize by our senses are more valid than statistics and research :D

thanks for support :P i really needed another opinion :)


Baldy_:

yeah i always believed that both whole and parts are important "together" because their relationship together is what can produce something new .. "zoom in and zoom out"
but this i never realized until i became an adult.. and realized the notion of a bigger picture.. it starts to be a real dilemma to connect without neglect the tiny little details of a memory... until i have this thought of a big event in my childhood :)

thanks for passing by "baldy" ;D

Someday said...

I agree totally with you about the 50’s!
now that can explain my dad open mind though he is still a traditional man!
but not all are effected in the same degree, some more than others, and mostly depends on the amount of exposure that they received from the surrounding environment during such periods

Deema said...

yeah i agree that people have different reactions after some more time with some layering over the childhod experience it can be an extreme opposite to what it was