of lore about Termite Hall, odd tales about enormous
and categorical (i.e., the name given to the trend of
parties thrown there, extended families and guests who
contradictions that seems to abound in Mobile and from
never moved out, even the fact that it had a name—
which spring inordinately exaggerated, deep-seated, and
Termite Hall—had a similar effect. They obscured my
honestly-held beliefs about life there). Water culture, as
perspective on the house, allowed me to envision things
I understand it, is elusive, insubstantial, and, worst of
about it, kept me from seeing the place up close.
all, thoroughly inconsequential. But whether or not its
This obscured perspective means that my obsession with Termite Hall is a tangled knot of:
products are mirages or realities, water culture most certainly exists.
distorted childhood memories of Mobile (wrought iron things—benches, fountains, gates), old assumptions
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about the kind of events that occur on a regular basis in the city, the mythology I have of my birth place, Eugene
I first heard the term ‘water culture’ from my father. As
Walter and roads with names like ‘Grand Boulevard
in, the city of Mobile’s complex social structures and
Street,’ a history of Termite Hall far richer in the
hierarchies reflect the water culture of ship captains,
retelling than in the actual occurrence, Adelaide
trade routes, ports, and longshoremen that have been
Marston Trigg, a tendency to believe in golden ages, a
present since the earliest days of the colony. I didn’t
wish that things of cultural significance have been
really grasp the deeper and more nuanced economic
hidden under my nose all along, etc etc.
commentary on sea-centered capitalism that my father
The task of untangling this knot around Termite
probably meant in this example, but ‘water culture’ felt
Hall means untangling my understanding of culture in
hefty and mysterious on the tongue. I filed it away as
the Azalea City.
something that might sound intellectual in certain social
And explaining culture in Mobile— 1
well, talking about it abstractly at least —means
gatherings.
explaining first the city’s inexplicable sense of self-
The first time I pull it out, it’s late October a few
importance and resultant (and unfortunate) small-
years ago, and Ben sits beside me on the bus to Chicago.
mindedness. Second, however, it also means attempting
I make a remark about Fall in the Midwest: It’s different
to put into words what I have often heard in
from home, where we barely have any Autumn at all,
conversation but never had explained to me to any
where the leaves all give up the ghost on account of the
degree of satisfaction: the concept of a water culture.
never-ending heat of the late- and then, later, indian-
What follows will demonstrate the impossibility of this
summer, which occasionally extends even into the first
task. I now believe that what is called Mobile’s water
weeks of December.
culture functions as a sort of mysterious and ubiquitous
Ben asks what it’s like down there.
It’s like
force which pushes all fantasies and fictions about the
here, I shrug. It’s America. But I reconsider. That’s
city toward a degree of reality. I believe in water culture
not really true.
not as something of content (i.e., some concrete and
because I grew up there, but Mobile’s something
demonstrable set of traits), but rather something formal
different. Then I remember my father’s words: it’s got a
rough beast | 44
Maybe I engage with it differently