In March, we published the first in a series by Sara that looks at the hotels in her life, and how they’ve shaped her understanding of herself and the world. “The Empress and the Palm Springs Motel” tells the story of two very different family vacations. Two hotels, a four star historic landmark and mid-century motor court, provide a jumping off point to explore memory, how we come to understand social hierarchies and our place in them, and how moving away from routines helps us develop something called taste.
Here’s a teaser: “At five years old I didn’t know anything about class or taste or why sometimes we had high tea at The Empress and others we had frozen chicken pot pies in the chilly kitchen of our rented log house. The patterns that would shape my world were still forming. I understood “home” and “away,” but those categories didn’t correspond to normal and not. Everything was normal and everything was not.”
Read the whole essay on Substack.
Dismantle Culture & Media 