Learning one place’s name can unravel a whole unnoticed topography

Evidence

Recognizing the creek unfolded a whole topography of what I had not noticed. … I’d complained about Cupertino being so flat; what if I had known that that was because, for millions of years, that entire part of the Bay Area was an inland sea, and after that marshland? How was it possible for me to know the names of cities like Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Almaden, but not notice that they lay in a distinct curve—a curve defined by the nearby mountains, Loma Prieta, Mount Umunhum, Mount McPherson? — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 432

Categorization

• QUESTION: Could press whether naming is truly causal here, or whether attention precedes nomenclature — relevant to the reader’s ‘capaciousness or evasion’ critique of Odell’s method.
• XREF: connects to: Obscured sounds and sights lodge deeper in memory than obvious ones — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 193; Calling a place by its true name transforms wilderness into homeland — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 123; Precise descriptive vocabulary makes fine distinctions visible and memorable — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 80 (+9 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Obscured sounds and sights lodge deeper in memory than obvious ones — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 193; Calling a place by its true name transforms wilderness into homeland — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 123; Precise descriptive vocabulary makes fine distinctions visible and memorable — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 80 (+9 more)