Blog Post #4
Juliana Spahr's Well Then There Now is very focused on place, this idea is viewed through the lense of tourism. In "Sonnets," Spahr compares tourism to an invasive species coming into a foreign and and changing it simply because of their entry into it. According to Spahr, "We arrived by air by 747 and DC101 and L1011...We arrived and then walked into this green" (19). But just through the act of arriving to this new place, the land and the place are changed. Spahr claims, "We tried not to notice but as we arrived we became a part of arriving and making different" (19). This idea that tourism will inevitably alter the place being traveled to is very interesting to me. It reflects on many themes in the course. It reflects back on Trasks' issues with settlers becoming locals and changing the culture and landscape of Hawaii. It also reflects back on the writings of explorers and missionaries in Pacific Passages, who altered the cultural landscape of the islands just by arriving.
Mary -
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cursory engagement with all the texts you've involved in your post - give me the juicy details, the why's -> dig deeper, more critically into your readings and postings.
- Trey