Object Lessons: From Batholith to Bookend

Abstract

This chapter narrates a series of intervals and events in the geobiography of a pair of granite bookends. The granite under study here formed several hundred million years ago, its relatively large crystal structure suggesting a process of slow cooling within the emplacement of the molten batholith. The chapter begins with a description of the formation and extraction of the bookends' granite and uses this history to discuss geographical perspectives on the underlying instability and dynamism of ostensibly inert matter. It then follows the stone as it is incorporated in a built structure and explores the investment of labor required to maintain its durability as a cultural form. As the bookends take on a role in the unfolding story as discrete objects, they become available for study in different ways. Most obviously, they enter into more intimate, and intricate, systems of production, consumption, and use.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.