Summary

In "Riding the Blinds": "Travel Town," Nelson describes a memory. When her son was young, she would take him to "Travel Town, a cul-de-sac in Griffith Park where unthinkably large locomotives have gone to rest" (171). Her son delighted in the trains, and so did Nelson. However, in reflecting upon these memories, Nelson realizes the complications of glorifying such inventions like the steam engine. As Timothy Morton wrote, James Watt's steam engine "commenced the depositing of carbon in Earth's crust—namely, the inception of humanity as a geophysical force on a planetary scale" (172). Thus marked the start of the Anthropocene. Nelson wonders now if her seemingly innocent pastime with her son was contributing to the proverbial "end of the world" (173, Nelson's italics).

Identifying the beginning of the end of the world, Nelson finds seeds of thought related to the climate crisis...