> Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2000 16:09:15 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)
> From: Julie Scott <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: new Movie, "The Beach" may mis-represent backpackers
> To: Kevin Meethan <[log in to unmask]>
> Cc: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
> Tim Wallace <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
> Priority: NORMAL
Point taken - the one week I didn't get a copy of the Big Issue!
I suppose what I was getting at are a number of issues ( no
pun intended) around the 'suspension of disbelief' that we tend
to apply to works of art. So that we know actors are only actors,
that fiction is only fiction, that a painting is only a
two dimensional layer of pigment and so on. Yet when it come to
tourism analysis, this often tends to get forgotten about, or become
subsumed under the authenticity debate, so that tourist
representations of places are somehow taken as 'false' because they
do not represent 'reality', or destinations themselves become 'false'
or 'inauthentic' because the golden hordes have got there in the end.
Curse it! I have talked myself into going to see this wretched film
now!
> For those living in the UK, the 'Big Issue' ran a number of
> related features last week: 'The Party's Over for
> Travellers as Goa Falls Silent' on the decision to ban
> outdoor music over 45 decibels; 'Trouble in Paradise', a
> parody of 'The Beach' on windswept Camber Sands, East
> Sussex; and 'Wish You Weren't Here', on the
> backpacking-and-travel-writing phenomenon and their effects
> on destinations ('Backpackers fancy themselves as some sort
> of counter-cultural force, but they're really just the
> reconnaissance teams for the straw-donkey mob; a
> middle-class, friendship band-wearing advance guard for the
> lobster-coloured families from Croydon who are now broiling
> on the beaches of Phuket').
> On Tue, 08 Feb 2000 15:31:02 +0000 (GMT) Kevin Meethan
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > > Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2000 13:06:30 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)
> > > Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
> > > Priority: NORMAL
> > > Subject: Re: new Movie, "The Beach" may mis-represent backpackers
> > > From: Julie Scott <[log in to unmask]>
> > > To: Tim Wallace <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Cc: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
> >
> > I think Julie's comment is accurate in many respects but isn't that
> > always the ways with fiction - Homeric epics don't give a 'true'
> > account of the Tojans I am sure, and Shakespeare took a lot of
> > liberties with history - to say nothing of all the others that have
> > followed since. Question is I suppose, should we treat artistic
> > production (in the broadest sense) as anything other than partial?
> > and what woudl a fully rounded fictional account of tourism look
> > like? Is it possible?
> >
> > >
> > > One might add that the film is another fine example of
> > > American cultural hegemony, as the main protagonists are
> > > transformed into *American* backpackers for the
> > > requirements of Hollywood. So skewed in more ways than one
> > > - it's an American world!
> > >
> > > > > > THE BEACH: SKEWED VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL?
> > > > > >
> > >
> > > > > > "The Beach" is the controversial new Leonardo
> > > > > > DiCaprio film depicting the
> > > > > > lifestyle of young American backpackers in Southeast
> > > > > > Asia....
> > >
> > > etc
> > >
> > > ----------------------
> > > Dr Julie Scott
> > > Centre for Leisure and Tourism Studies
> > > University of North London
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > > Tel. 0207 607 2789 Ext.3110
> > >
> > >
>
> ----------------------
> Dr Julie Scott
> Centre for Leisure and Tourism Studies
> University of North London
> [log in to unmask]
> Tel. 0207 607 2789 Ext.3110
>
>
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