Billy wrote: "Maybe there is no virtual reality and we need to learn to
experience the real before and around us."

Yeah, I can see that. I've always been bothered by those 'world is getting
smaller' arguments. It seems to me that the world is actually the same size
it always was and may even be getting bigger because e-mail and stuff is
actually removing the need to travel and visit other cultures. Or to put it
another way: we were flying back from holiday last year and the pilot says
'look out the window and you'll see we're just starting to fly over the
Sahara Desert'. Four hours later we still were - mindboggling.

Perhaps what those 'world is getting smaller' arguments really mean is that
the Western world is getting smaller and more homogenised. Because, based on
my own experience, the further east you go the more and more alien things
become. If you're in a mainland Chinese city not only can you not read the
signs that say Post Office or Hospital - the buildings don't even look the
same as you're used to. And I think that coming back home from this type of
experience kind of subverts Western ideas of place in culture and of your
own sense of place in your own culture.

Can Billy please say more about where the Snyder passage comes from?
Cheers
David





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