Spaces and Exchanges

florestan a écrit: Bon je suis en allemand mais les thèmes sont les mêmes. Le truc pas mal je trouve avec le sujet "nouveaux moyens de communication, circulation de l'information, réel/virtuel..." c'est que ça peut rentrer aussi dans le thème l'idée de progrès. Et ça n'est pas dur du tout à problématiser.

"I've always hated holidays, even as a kid. Such a waste of time, sitting on a beach, making sandpies, when you could be at home making some interesting hobby. Then, when I got engaged, we were both students at the time, my fiancée insisted on dragging me off to Europe to see the sights: Paris, Venice, Florence, the usual things. Bored the pants off me, till one day, sitting on a lump of rock beside the Parthenon, watching the tourists milling about, clicking their cameras, talking to each other in different languages, it suddenly struck me : tourism is the new world religion. Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, the one thing they have in common is they believe in the importance of seeing the Parthenon. Or the Sistine Chapel, or the Eiffel Tower. I decided to make it my Ph. D. subject. Never looked back. No, the Travelwise package is a research grant in kind. The British Association of Travel Agents are paying for it. They think it's good PR to subsidize a bit of academic research now and again. Little do they know."

He grinned mirthlessly again.

"What d'you mean?"

"I'm doing to tourism what Marx did to capitalism, what Freud did to family life. Desconstructing it. You see, I don't think people really want to go on holiday, any more than they really want to go to church. They've been brainwashed into thinking it will do them good, or make them happy. In fact surveys show that holidays cause incredible amounts of stress."

"These people look cheerful enough", said Bernard gesturing at the passengers waiting to board the flight to Honolulu. There were now quite a lot of them, as time of departure neared : mostly Americans, dressed in garish casual clothes, some in shorts and sandals as if ready to walk straight off the plane onto the beach. There was a rising babble of drawling, twanging accents, loud laughter, shouts and whoops.

"An artificial cheerfulness," said Sheldrake. Fuelled by double Martinis in many cases, I wouldn't be surprised. They know how people going on vacation are supposed to behave. They have learnt how to do it. Look deep into their eyes and you will see anxiety and dread. ( ... )

"What exactly are you hoping to achieve with your research?"

"To save the world," Sheldrake replied solemnly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Tourism is wearing out the planet." ( ... ) In 1939 a million people travelled abroad; last year it was four hundred million. By the year 2000 there could be six hundred and fifty million international travellers, and five times as many people travelling in their own countries. The mere consumption of energy entailed is stupendous."

"My goodness," said Bernard.

"The only way to stop it, short of legislation, is to demonstrate to people that they aren't really enjoying themselves when they go on holiday, but engaging in a superstitious ritual. It's no coincidence that tourism arose just as religion went into decline. It's the new opium of the people, and must be exposed as such."

"Won't you do yourself out of job if you're successful?" said Bernard?

"I don't think there's immediate risk of that," said Sheldrake, surveying the crowded lounge.

At the moment there was a stirring in the waiting area and a surge of passengers towards the gate, as a member of the airline ground staff was observed to pick up a microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, we shall begin boarding with rows thirty-seven through forty-six", he announced.

MrBrightside a écrit:
(Moi je vote la Frontier, mais c'est juste parce que c'est un thème que je kiffe de love Avec un petit coup de Manifest Destiny et on a le combo parfait sur la mythologies américaine !)

MrBrightside a écrit:Je viens espionner un peu ce que font les collègues du secondaire, faites comme si je n'étais pas là.

Plus sérieusement, j'ai l'impression que la question des amérindiens n'est plus très populaire au lycée. J'ai pas souvenir de l'avoir vu beaucoup dans les manuels et j'ai l'impression que mes étudiants n'en ont pas souvent entendu parler. Me trompé-je ?

(Moi je vote la Frontier, mais c'est juste parce que c'est un thème que je kiffe de love Avec un petit coup de Manifest Destiny et on a le combo parfait sur la mythologies américaine !)