Daily travel
The repetitive long journey to and from university is made bearable by the MP3 player. The ‘thinking allowed’ sociological podcasts of Laurie Taylor convince me I am not wasting time. Or the music I listen to offers me an escape method to an era I did not live through, but view with an artificial dreamlike longing and nostalgia. The utopia of 1970s Glam Rock offsets the dystopia of being climbed over by men who smell of alcohol and jabbed in the back with oversized backpacks on buses which never seem to be able to adhere to the timetable.
When taking a phenomenological stance in analysing everyday life, the postmodern theory lends itself well. For just like in postmodern thought, every person as a different experience and understanding …show more content…
Music can be used as a tool to relocate to a time and place where you had social and aesthetic control other yourself – the bus journey to university is an ‘everyday’ necessary mundane action. Made bearable by the playlist which recalls events of watching bands, being in nightclubs or dreaming of seeing bands you will never see.
But the rigidity of a weekly and daily timetable, like daily travel, can enable an illusion of purpose through the construction of reality. A reality which although open to resistance and challenge, offers security and safety in familiarity. The everyday bus journey is a rare time and space in which, although surrounded by many other people, a person call feel anonymous. This seemingly mundane activity is actually an event devoid of any other external expectations, roles or work to be carried out by the person travelling.
We may attempt to escape reality, but we always return to it. Searching for utopia, and those small moments of unfettered joy maintains our commitment to the routines of everyday
The repetitive long journey to and from university is made bearable by the MP3 player. The ‘thinking allowed’ sociological podcasts of Laurie Taylor convince me I am not wasting time. Or the music I listen to offers me an escape method to an era I did not live through, but view with an artificial dreamlike longing and nostalgia. The utopia of 1970s Glam Rock offsets the dystopia of being climbed over by men who smell of alcohol and jabbed in the back with oversized backpacks on buses which never seem to be able to adhere to the timetable.
When taking a phenomenological stance in analysing everyday life, the postmodern theory lends itself well. For just like in postmodern thought, every person as a different experience and understanding …show more content…
Music can be used as a tool to relocate to a time and place where you had social and aesthetic control other yourself – the bus journey to university is an ‘everyday’ necessary mundane action. Made bearable by the playlist which recalls events of watching bands, being in nightclubs or dreaming of seeing bands you will never see.
But the rigidity of a weekly and daily timetable, like daily travel, can enable an illusion of purpose through the construction of reality. A reality which although open to resistance and challenge, offers security and safety in familiarity. The everyday bus journey is a rare time and space in which, although surrounded by many other people, a person call feel anonymous. This seemingly mundane activity is actually an event devoid of any other external expectations, roles or work to be carried out by the person travelling.
We may attempt to escape reality, but we always return to it. Searching for utopia, and those small moments of unfettered joy maintains our commitment to the routines of everyday