Comments on: History, Tourism, and Pain http://theoryculture.com/91/history-tourism-and-pain/ Just another WordPress site Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:17:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Emily http://theoryculture.com/91/history-tourism-and-pain/#comment-249 Emily Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:19:39 +0000 http://theorymyculture.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/history-tourism-and-pain/#comment-249 Yeah. In my travels in the Civil War country I've always been amazed at how the word "plantation" is assumed to suggest gentility and fond nostalgia on the side of the road. As in, Come have tea at a real plantation! It seems not everyone is chilled by that word, by that history--it is that completely forgotten. I was coming down the escalator at Grand Central at rush hour last week, and the two guys jammed up behind me were discussing an upcoming vacation, how awesome it was that one of the guys worked at Westin corporate headquarters so they were getting free rooms, etc. And then in the flow of conversation one of them said, So, are you going to see any camps? And the other guy was like, Well, I've been to Dachau, and that was pretty great... I was amazed. That you could flow between Westin resorts and death camps and dinner reservations for later as if they are all natural and perfectly okay parts of what it means to be living a tourist-class life in the U.S. Remarkable. Yeah. In my travels in the Civil War country I’ve always been amazed at how the word “plantation” is assumed to suggest gentility and fond nostalgia on the side of the road. As in, Come have tea at a real plantation! It seems not everyone is chilled by that word, by that history–it is that completely forgotten.

I was coming down the escalator at Grand Central at rush hour last week, and the two guys jammed up behind me were discussing an upcoming vacation, how awesome it was that one of the guys worked at Westin corporate headquarters so they were getting free rooms, etc. And then in the flow of conversation one of them said, So, are you going to see any camps? And the other guy was like, Well, I’ve been to Dachau, and that was pretty great… I was amazed. That you could flow between Westin resorts and death camps and dinner reservations for later as if they are all natural and perfectly okay parts of what it means to be living a tourist-class life in the U.S. Remarkable.

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