(Re)Presentation and Perception

This is what the Continuum (re)presents as their complex:

City living without the city: I think, at times, that even their palm trees must be made of plastic. Much like the Happy Meal, or a Happy Vacation, The Continuum (much like many other housing communities in Gainesville for [grad] students) gives the "consumer" what they want: predictability, safety (no city terrorists here), convenience, calculability, efficiency--seemingly non-human. Look at their faces: they are happy, pleased; they feel good about their experience here in Gainesville.

This is what I see:

Gates, impoverished limits, fences: don't let the Others in. We have a Community. Recently, there occurred a rupture: a woman heard a knock on her door at 2:45am; she opened the door; some male perpetrator hit her in the face and ran away. The police noted: we found her in a pool of blood. How could this happen in Our Community? Can't you see the city through the gated fence, right above? We are gated! The surveillance is top-notch, too, as you can also see from the picture above. For example, I was cited and sent through a judicial process when the maintenance crew discovered a candle in my apartment. Candles are banned, and such a judicial process was for the good of Our Community. Logic/Their Instruction: Being afraid of being watched only lessens our fear of being attacked--in Our Community.

I walk through my own complex as a stranger, entering the gates of a compound not truly a part of me, though entirely apart from me. I am gated in. They watch my burning of candles, as though I once, if my memory serves correct, were a dark ancestor burning pagan herbs. It's a new method of exile: I just wanted a regular burger, but now I'm knee-deep in McDonald's play-pen balls. And every paranoid suburban soccer mom is watching my every move. No trespassing. It's a disjunction: I expect to see strange, shadowy figures in any city endeavor, as I always have. Exiled from this EPS, my GPS finds me in a plastic container--and my screams only ring sensitive alarms (for sensitive people). And the worst part: most of them wake up early to work out every day.