The End of Airports

by Schaberg, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9781501305498
• ISBN10: 1501305492
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-11-19
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

If air travel was once the bold future, it has now settled into a mundane, on-going present. We no longer expect romantic experiences or sublime views, but just hope that we get from here to there with minimal hassle. In The End of Airports, Christopher Schaberg suggests that even as the epoch of flight approaches a threshold of banality, there are still mysteries to be unraveled around our aircraft and airfields. Drawing from his own experiences working at an airport, as well as interpreting these spaces from the perspective of a cultural critic, Schaberg explores the secret lives of jet bridges, seating areas, concourses, and tarmac vehicles, showing how the ordinary objects of flight call for wonder and inquiry. The End of Airports is not an obituary-it's more like an ode to terminals in the digital age.

Author Biography

Christopher Schaberg is Associate Professor of English & Environment at Loyola University New Orleans, USA. He is the author of The Textual Life of Airports: Reading the Culture of Flight (2011, reprinted in paperback, 2013).

Table of Contents

Preface

aphorisms for airports

1. Cross-Utilized Agent
2. Cog in the Machine
3. Checking In
4. Seatback Pockets
5. The Tug
6. Meal Kits
7. Tetris

aphorisms for airport work

8. No Longer New
9. Tom
10. FOD
11. Creatures
12. Burnout
13. Flight Privileges
14. Stranded
15. Strange Flights

aphorisms for an age of security

16. Code Red
17. Stickers
18. Jeff Bridges
19. Night on the Tarmac
20. Six Years Later

aphorisms for an age of new media

21. Ubiquitous Droning
22. Sitting Still, Taking Time
23. Hangar to Grave
24. Conditions Beyond Control
25. Jet Bridges
26. All Systems Go
Coda: Return to Bozeman

aphorisms for the end of airports

Notes
Bibliography
Index