I love this level of artifice and fakery, to see the imaginary supplanting the actual, or the actual revising itself to reflect the imaginary. It’s especially pleasing to imagine these landscapes a few centuries in the future, after some kind of civilisational collapse has occurred; the survivors rebuilding the world out of fragments of borrowed kitsch whose origins they have forgotten.
Nov 18, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023Liked by Wessie du Toit
I understand, I lived in Prague '98-'99 and its theme parkification became grating quite quickly, and it was nowhere near as advanced what you describe here. On the other hand, I rather enjoy watching Austin transform itself into a glittering travesty of its formerly ramshackle self, as all of the quirky local shops race to become franchises while inveterate careerists LARP as radicals on the weekend.
« Sudjic acidly observes “the Old War Office building on Whitehall, from which Winston Churchill led the defence of Britain against Hitler, has become the Raffles OWO hotel where bed and breakfast starts at over £1,000 a night.” Meanwhile in Camden, “facsimile punks” perform for tourists “as if they were Beefeaters on parade.”»
Similarly in Berlin, the "flak towers", which are big concrete structures made to hold anti-air guns, used in the war are now hotels for tourists. They even put "roof gardens" on it!!
By the way.. another place ruined by tourism is the Pyrenees region, in Spain. Miguel Amorós does a good piece of analysis and critique of the situation here:
I love this level of artifice and fakery, to see the imaginary supplanting the actual, or the actual revising itself to reflect the imaginary. It’s especially pleasing to imagine these landscapes a few centuries in the future, after some kind of civilisational collapse has occurred; the survivors rebuilding the world out of fragments of borrowed kitsch whose origins they have forgotten.
I do find it fascinating, which is why I like writing about it, but this is one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy living in London towards the end.
I understand, I lived in Prague '98-'99 and its theme parkification became grating quite quickly, and it was nowhere near as advanced what you describe here. On the other hand, I rather enjoy watching Austin transform itself into a glittering travesty of its formerly ramshackle self, as all of the quirky local shops race to become franchises while inveterate careerists LARP as radicals on the weekend.
I would love to read about this!
I sketched towards it here, or at least the causes of it...https://unherd.com/2023/04/tech-bros-are-suffocating-weird-austin/
Brilliant piece, a pleasure to read.
Thanks!
« Sudjic acidly observes “the Old War Office building on Whitehall, from which Winston Churchill led the defence of Britain against Hitler, has become the Raffles OWO hotel where bed and breakfast starts at over £1,000 a night.” Meanwhile in Camden, “facsimile punks” perform for tourists “as if they were Beefeaters on parade.”»
Similarly in Berlin, the "flak towers", which are big concrete structures made to hold anti-air guns, used in the war are now hotels for tourists. They even put "roof gardens" on it!!
By the way.. another place ruined by tourism is the Pyrenees region, in Spain. Miguel Amorós does a good piece of analysis and critique of the situation here:
https://libcom.org/article/when-barbarians-invade-periphery-commercialization-and-destruction-catalonian-pyrenees