ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the story of a rising river, its improbable menagerie and an odd lot of history's floating objects, reconceived. Along the Fictitious River, the Gissen-brand of mud, weeds, dankness, and other subnatures is more than an unpleasant site condition to be put in its nature box. These inconvenient weeds are more than the stuff of outside, in which the limited tonal range of the inside draws inspiration and views. They are more than inconvenient, viewed through the framed precision of an impeccably controlled inside. But on the Fictitious River, city hall defies easy categorization and anticipates broader interpretations of public ground. Remora, whose name, in Latin, means to 'delay', equivocates, with discernment, between and among; she suspends, floats, accommodates. Creatures like Remora inform and transform the object and the greater system; as does time; as do fluctuations in seasons, water levels, and nature's bounty.