yet more mindless link propagation

[annathyst]

DFW on tourism, courtesy of evan.

It kinda sums up my own feelings on the subject rather well, and explains a lot about how I feel about a lot of peripheral things. Take, for example, the town of Great Barrington, which my school is vaguely situated in.

Its economy is entirely driven by tourism. Without the summer and autumn waves of tourists, there simply would not be a town of Great Barrington any longer - the original farming community or whatever it once was is long lost. This state of affairs has always disturbed me, and I've never been able to exactly articulate it, but this excerpt is a good start.

Comments

[neuromantic.livejournal.com]

There is something about David Foster Wallace that I find borderline unbearable. I've never read any of his books, but I've read an article or two, and heard an interview on NPR. He strikes me as the horribly po-mo type, so po-mo that I just want to punch him in the face. I could be wrong though.

[annathyst]

Well, I've read Infinite Jest all the way through twice, and I enjoyed it immensely both times. It may be the ``definitive PoMo novel'', but it didn't seem unbearably wanky, and I rather enjoyed it.

[yellowpigs.livejournal.com]

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While I agree with your assessment of Great Barrington, there is still a bit of non-tourism industry in Housatonic (Fox River Paper, Berkshire Corp, etc). Historically, the economy of the area was farming, but then switched to paper and other mill products. I think Lee has more industry than Great Barrington, and Pittsfield (which is remarkably different from Great Barrington) was the metropolis of the area with the big GE plant and some other factories.

</history-lesson>