CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE THE LONG VALLEY: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL PEru1UTATION \ \ A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography by Martin S. Kenzer ....- Augu-st, 1980 The Thesis of Martin S. Kenzer is approved: Robert M. Newcomb Elliot ~cintir~ David Hornbeck, Committee Chairman Cqlifornia State University, Northridge ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements represent the release of pent-up pressures and they are also a sort of confession; those tortuous hours and days of anguish are finally over, and it is now tii'le to credit those who took the time and made it (somehow) all work out in the end. On the lighter side, I must say thank you to the wonderful procrastinations I was able to create: Dodger gam~s, the Pub, that uncontrollable Frisbee, those long thought-provoking lunches, and watching that inimitable fellow we deemed the "Coke Man," are all most certainly a part of this paragraph. To these, and to all the many other diversions that allowed me to .look busy while I did very little, I am most grateful. To the RTD for making my life utterly miserable as I tried to commute to school each day, and to all the automobiles and filth­ producing industries that make the air in Los Angeles so outright disgusting, I am additionally grateful because these are the sorts of things that drive a person to finish a thesis so he can then leave. On a more serious note, to Leroy the custodian, for being himself and for placing things into perspective, I extend a warm thank you and a smile. Likewise, to all the Geography department secretaries, but especially to Peggy Michaels and Trudy Sterner, I am appreciative for their honest friendship and for the comfort of a couple of shoulders to lean on and a few pairs of ears that would always listen. iii It is perhaps quaint to say so, but 'i.'lithout my parent's support I would never have been able to go to school in the first place, much less complete this M.A. degree. Although the ultimate reward has yet to be realized, I also owe more than a small amount of gratitude to Ralph Vicero. To Joyce Gerritsen, who typed, re-typed, cursed me in private, and then re-typed this thesis again, I acknowledge much more than a simple thank you; I would still be here typing the manuscript. Next, tl1ere is Elliot Mcintire who offered co®nents, encourage­ ments, and his two "eagle-eyes" t.o proofread this thesis at its numerous stages of progress. To Robert Ne,.7comb, who is both a comrade and a genuinely nice person, I offer a sincere and much­ deserved string of thank yous. To a select but unnamed group of students and friends, I am grateful for their continual motivation, their constant (although playful) prodding, and for all those subjective experiential realities that this thesis is all abcut. Of these, Robert A. Rundstrom must be singled-out from the rest; without the many pleasing and philosophical c;.;.>nversations. we had, I would have gone crazy long long ago--a special Thank You! To the one individual who has probably meant more and done more for me than any other single person, I cannot find the words but please accept my thanks and remember I will always be there. And finally, to David Hornbeck, who planted the seed of an idea, left it alone to germinate, and then watched that seed sprout, slowly take root, struggle to live, wander for a time, and ultimately bear fruit, I offer the five essays which follow. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT vi Chapter 1 1 2 12 3 42 4 70 5 97 APPENDIX .- 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 v ABSTRACT THE LONG VALLEY; A PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERMUTATION by Martin S. Kenzer Master of Arts in Geography August, 1980 A central focus of geography is the study of place. No two places on the earth's surface are exactly the same and geographers are concerned with finding out why. To this end, however, their approach to understanding has relied primarily on paradigms and research strategies t:hat some·times exceed a millennium in agei a logical, objective, rationalistic orientation to nature--later termed logical-positivism--has become the mode of explaining reality. This thesis suggests that a subjective, humanistic perspective is needed to augment objective fact-finding. To accomplish this, this thesis further suggests that regional novels, when viewed within this humanistic framework, become prerequisite data sources for the historical geographer interested in gaining an insight into the "inside" workings of place. As an example, John Steinbeck's "Salinas Novels" are used in this thesis to show that Steinbeck, a non-teleological writer, was vi writing from a humanistic/phenomenological point of view, and therefore serves as a perfect model for analyzing subjective research. His philosophy of life, as exemplified in Sea Of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal Of Travel And Research, shows tha·t Steinbeck was only concerned in writing about what is, not what could or should be. The thesis concludes that geographers cannot ignore subjective sources of data (in this case regional nove~sl, and that the histori­ cal geographer in particular, should view novels as social documents which provide the intimate, "lived-world" reality of a particular place at some specific point in time. One additional reconunendation found in this thesis is that for the student, regional novels are an excellent introduction to the understanding of place, and of how places truly do differ over the surface of the earth. vii ' . "My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see. That--and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm·--all you demand--and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask." Joseph Conrad Chapter l There are basically four traditions within the field of geo- graphy--an earth science emphasis, an area studies perspective, a spatial orientation, and an approach stressing man-land relation­ 1 ships. Attempts at defining the basis for geographic research have also yielded four primary paradigms--enviroP~.ental, regional studies, . 2 t h e stud y o f place, and geography as a synoptlc sc1ence. Central to both schc~es, appears to be the geographer's emphasis on places. No matter what methodology geographers use, and no matter which paradigm they place that methodology within, they must somehow be concerned 3 with specific locales. Nearly every professional geographer whc has ever penned a textbook has, at some point in the text, laid claim to the distinctive character of places, and has 0mphasized the idea that the study of geography is based on differentiating one place 4 from another. But in order to capture the true essence of a part- icular place, the geographer must be open to data which transcends the physical world of abstract space. Attuned to a humanistic per­ 5 spective, geographers have begun to explore alternative sources of dat..a, usually to be explained from a subjective, phenomenological 6 framework. One such source of data has been the use of regional 7 literature, more specifically the regional historical novel. l 2 The regional novelist is essentially interested in the same thirig that concerns the regional geographer. That is, "to integrate the multitude of seemingly disconnected facts about nature and man in 8 the region he is describing." Both are interested in characterizing the uniqueness of the particular area they are concerned with. Yet each approaches their description from different ends, via different media. The geographer collects "objective" data and remains remo;.·ed from the description by presenting an "unbiased" explanation. The novelist, however, draws his data from real-life experiences and presents a subjective accounting. Because of this isolated subjectivity, geographers are often war1 of using regional novels, claiming that they vlere purposefully contrived to express a particu1ar point of view. g_ Yet geographers who feel this way are seemingly missing the true value of novels and are thereby neglecting a valuable resource for geographic research. N0'.Tels derive their strength as =< resource in the fact that th~y draw on human experiences. Novels are not based on a ficticious world that only exists in the minds of the authors. Rather, novels mirror reality. They portray the deep human emotions and experiences that the so-called objective, scientific researcher cannot abstract 10 from his or her brand of data. It is "the skillful novelist" writes Meinig, who "often seems to come closest of all in capturing the full 11 flavor of the environment." The novelist is not studying the environment, he is an intricate part of the environment. He is writ.ing .from the inside, rather than trying to understand the area from above. Therefore, he provides a unique perspective of human 3 experience unavailable to the "outsider." It is this very "inside" perspective that qualifies novels as sources of data. As Salter points out, "The strength of landscape in literature lies in its subtle human qualities, its potential for revealing the hidden . f h . ~ . ~\12 d 1.mens1.ons o uman mean1.ng, ana not 1.n 1.ts ObJectJ.vJ.ty. But novels provide more than emotions and a quality of life totally lacking from the best geographic description. Perhaps of most importance to the historical geographer, is the novelist's conscious or unconsc1.ous. representat1.on.